Darkening Horizon
by grilledjellyfish
Summary: War hits Konoha unexpectedly. Have our fav ninjas matured enough to survive the bloody battle? The two Uchiha brothers clash! Who will be victorious? The conclusion! SasxSak NarxSak NejxTen JirxTsu AsuxKure
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes:  
Well, this actually started as a weird dream! One of the best I've ever head of any manga I know! So you see it was kinda hard to get it down into words, but my sis thinks it went all quite well... you've to find out yourself!  
There's a lot of swearing, blood and death... hopefully no casualties among our heroes though! 

Just for the records: Hey, Tobi-hime! lol... just kidding! (my bro... complained that I never mention his name O.O') And hugs and kisses go to Maren-chan, Shan-sama and Katrin-chan! You go girls!

--------------------

'Sorry'

Sad eyes watched as hands, drenched in fresh red blood, stopped glowing in a bluish light.  
Another drop of crimson liquid dripped down onto the young woman's knees, cascading down her almost immaculate white skin.  
Only some scars and dirt tainted her.

There had been a short moment when she had felt pain.  
Not from the kunai imbedded deeply within her left shoulder, having torn apart muscles and punctured the bone protecting her lung there. The pain had not come from the exhaustion or the lack of chakra, making her body ache and her unable to heal her own wounds.

The pain had run down her spine, having pierced through her core like a katana and had forced her to bit back the sob that had threatened to escape her dry lips.

It had been when the shinobi's heart had ceased to work and Sakura had realized, had been 'forced' to realize, that there was nothing she could have probably done. For both him and his fallen comrade, who had been fending off the hostile ninjas for the last few minutes.

Looking up, the sadness disappeared within an eye's blink, being replaced by pure anger. Sakura stared calmly at the man standing across the street, a kunai dangling from a finger as he smiled cockily down at the kneeling woman.

"You finished?" He asked her in an almost light tone of voice, slowly advancing towards her.

'He thinks you're easy prey...' Sakura thought numbly, watching as he got nearer. 'He's wrong!'

Jumping up from the dirty ground, Sakura attacked the man frontally, the noise of two kunais clashing agaist each other echoeing through the silence in her ears.  
She pressed him backwards against a wall of an old house, a silent grunt of the surprised man being enough Sakura needed to focus just the right amount of chakra into her left index finger.

In one swift movement, she pressed the digit against the side of her enemies neck. Her chest tightened, pressing out a controlled lung of oxygen.  
The chakra flooded out of her finger into the shinobi's neck just like the air she had just exhaled.

This was definitely one of the easier tricks she knew.

A choked gasp could be heard from him and Sakura let go of his hand, retreating hastily backwardsto gain some space between the two of them.  
Another gasp errupted from his throat as he desperately tried to inhale, but it seemed his chest refused his brain's order to heave. Slowly his lips turned blue and the trembling muscles of his fingers couldn't hold the kunai any longer, the weapon falling soundly to the ground.

Before he fell to his knees, Sakura had already turned around.

She had never been the person to watch a man dying. Enemy or not.

Again her eyes found the two dead leaf-ninjas and silently begged for forgiveness.

They hadn't been the first dead she had seen or hadn't be able to rescue.  
Sakura had been a medical nin for years now and had gone on many missions. Most of them where high class ones, where she was either an additional member in an ANBU squad or the main head of the medical team.

Sakura had watched how fast people could both kill and die.

Most of the time it took weeks and months to prepare for a mission and it didn't matter whether it was an assassination or a difficult escort. But to finish the job or in the worst case to 'get' finished took usually mere seconds.  
A single heartbeat that could lead to victory or death.

Sakura was always there to prevent latter from happening.  
Rescue lives at all costs without jeopardizing either the missions or 'more' lives.

Of course even she couldn't save everybody.  
'That' had been one of the hardest lessons she had had to learn. Her sensei had made sure from day one that Sakura realized it. Death was not her fault!

She just wished she would never have to tell herself that when her friends lay dead before her feet, their blood covering her hands...

A noise different from the rest of the battle raging on around her caught her attention at once, alert eyes searching her surroundings as she waited for the person having caused it to appear.

"Sakura!"

Making a tight fist and directing her concern into it was all Sakura could do to prevent herself from running to her best friend, hugging her against her just because she was glad she was still alive.  
"Ino! How are you?"

"Fine... it's all done. Civilions all evacuated and hopefully safe..." Ino stopped mid-sentence when she saw the bodies, most of them from sound, scattered across the small area of the backyard. The two prone figures of the leaf-shinobis caught her eyes, making a lump rise in her throat. 'Sakura...'

Knowing where Ino's thoughts were heading rapidly, Sakura took the opportunity to run up to Ino, taking her hand and jumping up with her onto a roof. Immediately smoke started burning in her tired eyes and the heat of a nearby burning store licked at her sensitive skin.

"Any news from the others"  
"No. They're still not back and Tsunade is running around in circles. We already got a lot of casualties and won't be able to fight back for much longer..."

A shuriken whizzed past Ino's head, making her stop momentarily before the kunai of her friend killed their opponent.

"What about 'him'?" Sakura suddenly asked almost in a whisper, but Ino knew immediately who she meant.  
"Jiraya's with Tsunade right now... I overheard a conversation where he mentioned that Sasuke is not in Konoha." She could almost see her friend gulping hard at the news. "He thinks he's left Orochimaru to finally take care of his brother."

Some seconds passed by with no-one interrupting the silence.  
Sakura's eyes were alert, watching their surroundings carefully seemingly for the enemy, but Ino had been her friend long enough to know what she was 'really' looking for. A young man with black messy hair and eyes that told you 'eat shit.  
For strangers it must have seemed like she hadn't been listening at all.

Suddenly Sakura inhaled soundly. "Thanks, Ino..." Pausing she searched her mind for a safer topic. "Do you know what Tsunade wants?"

"She asked me to get ya because the Hokage tower is filled to the rim with injured and the medics have a hard time keeping them alive"  
"Yeah, already guessed so. Came back because I couldn't do anything for the dead in the area around the south gate." Sakura paused for a second, focusing more chakra into her feet as they had to jump across a large snake that had appeared out of the nowhere right underneath them.

Instead of attacking it, they sped up, heading to the tower in the middle of Konoha and out of the monster's reach.  
There was nothing the two of them could have probably done alone against the thing with nobody being around to help them.  
Hell, even a dozen of healthy shinobis couldn't beat the snakes!

"Ibiki gave the order himself to retreat... said, I should go and rescue lives where still were..." The rest of the sentence caught in her throat as she remembered all the blood and ripped bodies.

Sakura had never seen anything like this in her young life.  
The great war had already ended when she was small and the stories of those who had survived and the reports in her history book hadn't even started to cover what really happened in such a war, no, massacre!

'Naruto... I hope you're right...'

----------

"That fucking rat! I gonna chop off his head and stick it onto a rod running around town with his sorry shit-head"  
Claws dug hard into his palm as Naruto jumped through the thick crowns of the trees of the forest of Konoha. He had to fight the need to rip off every branch that came into his way.

"Line up, Naruto!" Kiba yelled from behind him, having a hard time keeping up with the young man... just like most of the other shinobis chasing after Naruto on their way back to Konohagakure. "Ya're not the only one whose fingers are itching to get his ass!"

"We don't know what's going to wait for us when we arrive!" A silver-haired man yelled as he caught up to Naruto.  
"So don't rush blindly into any trouble, ya heard me Naruto!"

Naruto didn't have to see the man's face to know that it was Kakashi telling him to calm down.

But, damn it, they had been deceived!  
That snake-bastard had made total fools out of them! And now he was miles away from where the 'real' fight was going on,  
having a happy stroll through the damn forest!

"Naruto"  
Blinking as another branch appeared in his line of view, Naruto realized that his breathing had quickened and blood trickled down his right wrist from the wounds in his palm his claws had caused.

Kakashi jumped onto another tree and looked sideways at his former student.  
"There was nothing we could have done! We got the information that Orochimaru would be attacking the southern border and I don't recall having read any word about a trap!"

"Yeah," Naruto mumbled, "That ero-sennin's sources of information have been much more reliable"  
"They could at least have left out the welcome party!" Kiba shouted from where he was speeding after Naruto.

Naruto exhaled sharply when he remembered the twenty sound ninjas standing in the forest laughing maniacally as they told the leaf-nins that they had been messed around with... big time!  
While the team of about two hundred of the best Konoha ninjas had been staring perplexed at the hostile group of men, hundreds of sound-nins were swarming the village... the unprotected village!

Naruto and his comrades had only needed minutes to finish the other party off, having turned around on their heels to get back to their homes ASAP. But they had still needed almost seven hours to even see the first glimpses of the city.

Or better, 'smell' it...

"Oh God..." Lee heard Kiba mumble as the scent of burnt wood and flesh reached his over-sensitive nose. His short prayer was accompanied by the low howl of his canine friend, Akamaru.

Looking up, Kakashi noticed thick clouds of grey smoke hovering dangerously above the village, bathing it in a gloomy light.  
He too could smell the first signs of war and took a shuddered breath as he tried to prepare himself mentally for the upcoming scene.

"Look out!" The voice of an ANBU errupted from beside Gai, who immediately swivelled around to find a gigantic snake crawling slowly out of a large hole in the ground in front of them.

Trees crashed down onto the ground, shattering into uncountable pieces from the hard fall.  
Smoke started burning in their eyes, making it almsot impossible for the ninjas to see a hand before them.

Suddenly a sound like thousand chirping birds could be heard to Gai's left and he knew without having to see anything that the snake wouldn't be any of their concern much longer. His eternal rival would take care of it now.

"Rasengan!" A voice suddenly yelled above the chirping sound, undoubtfully belonging to Jiraya's student.

Then everything seemed to slow down around Gai.  
An explosion lit the air in front of him and in the fraction of a second when its light flashed through the forest, he saw both Kakashi and Naruto jumping right through the monstrous body of the snake, burnt flesh sizzling as the blue and red chakra in the two outstretched hands forced their way through the beast.

The snake was dead before it hit the ground, giving the way free for the shinobis to the destroyed south gate.

"Sakura..." Naruto thought as he saw the first corpses of both leaf and sound nins littering the entrance to the city.

----------

"Sakura!"

Frowning, the young woman looked up from where her hands were pressed over a shoulder. She had successfully fixed the torn off arm back to the body and was about to heal another severe wound, when she had heard her name being yelled above the noises of screaming wounded and exploding houses.

"Tsunade wanna see ya!"

It was Shizune. And she didn't sound too happy.

Jumping up, she gave the whimpering man a tight smile and ran into the direction she thought Shizune was.  
Sakura found her, kneeling above a woman who was trashing around wildly. Her trouser was torn apart and bones were sticking out of the crushed leg.

"She's in her office"  
"You going to make it alone here?" Sakura asked, panting from the straining last healing processes.

"Probably not." Shizune smiled back tightly, the ninja she was taking care off slowly calming down under her ministrations.

Nodding, Sakura carefully made her way through the injured men and women filling the hallways of the Hokage tower. It was almost the only intact building in Konoha.  
The ninjas that were still able to fight were outside giving everything to fend off the enemy, because there was no way that the tower could be evacuated without losing a majority of the wounded. No, not in this chaos.

But it was also clear that the shinobis were fighting a losing battle.  
Every time one sound nin was down, three appeared in his place.

"Tsunade, what's..." The pink-haired kunoichi yelled, entering the office without waiting for an answer.  
"Sakura take Shikamaru and greet 'em at the south gate." Tsunade interrupted her apprentice mid-sentence, walking to the with boards barricaded window and peeked through a small gap in the roughly built construction.

"Tell Naruto the Akatsuki are here and that"  
"What! What are 'they' doing here?" Bewildered and alarmed, Sakura walked up to her sensei, hands gripping the edge of the large messy desk hard.

Looking across her shoulder, Tsunade sighed and nodded her chin towards a corpse of a leaf-nin in a corner of the room.  
"His comrades brought him about an hour ago. He wasn't injured fatally, only some scratches and bruises. But he was trashing around wildly and begged that 'he' should stop it... it was a powerful genjutsu."

'Mangekyo Sharingan', Sakura thought immediately.

"You're right." Tsunade said in a low tone of voice, confirming Sakura's worst fears.  
"The poor guy probably didn't even see it coming... He died from a heart-attack some minutes ago... couldn't deal with the immense stress."

"They're after him..." Sakura suddenly mumbled and looked up from the desk like in trance.  
"Yes. That's why we want you to go to the south gate and take care of that brat." This time it was the second sannin, Jiraya,  
who interrupted her. He had been standing in the far right corner, leaning against some bookshelves with crossed arms.

Sakura hadn't even sensed his chakra.  
'Calm down...' she told herself. She would be of no use in such a state of mind.

"You know he's short-tempered and is probably already running around headless on his search of Orochimaru's ass." He said with a heavy sigh. "There aren't many people he'll listen to in this state and you're one of them... probably the most likely one." Jiraya told Sakura sincerely with a small smile.

Pushing away from the window, Tsunade walked over to where her old friend was still standing.  
"Be careful... remember what I told you, Sakura." The young woman met the eyes of her teacher. "If you get killed, who's gonna save your friends?"

With that, Tsunade made a fist and concentrated a large amount of chakra in it, making it glow in an eery blue light. Without warning she smashed her fist into the bookshelves, the wood exploding under the power of the blow. Jiraya merely ducked as pieces came flying his way, before he made his way to the door.

Tsunade followed closely behind.  
"Just don't get killed, Sakura."

She left her student standing alone in the large office.

'Itachi is here...', Sakura thought, her eyes slowly closing as she tried to get her breathing back under control.  
What should she do? How could she help Naruto? Sakura knew she was probably no match at all for the older Uchiha, though she was known to be a genjutsu expert and never ran easily into traps of these kind.

But the Sharingan alone was way too powerful for most shinobis in her village. 'That' she knew for sure.  
Sakura had, after all, been training with Kakashi for years and had improved her own abilities by studying him. And he had only 'one'!

The problem with Itachi wasn't only the fact that he had been born with two sharingan, but that he had been able to arouse the most powerful weapon the Uchiha clan had had. The Mangekyo sharingan.

How could she of all people...

"Yo, Sakura"  
Looking up, the pink-haired kunoichi stared into the tired eyes of Shikamaru.

"Ya ready?" He asked her without any energy left in his voice.  
"Yeah... how are you?" She queried in concern, nodding her chin towards a large flesh wound on his shoulder and some smaller, bleeding gashes on his face.

"Been better..."

----------

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Out of the nowhere, twenty Narutos appeared, not waiting a second before they started attacking the group of sound-nins. The men had been burning down houses and plundering stores when Naruto, Kakashi, Gai, Neji and Lee had stumbled across them on their way to the Hokage tower.

Some of the kage bunshins soon dissolved in a cloud of white smoke as their enemies finished them off with some well-thrown shurikens and kunais. They weren't a match for the five high-class ninjas though.

Having revealed his left eye a long time ago, Kakashi had no problem foreseeing the moves of the ninjas, their own ninjutsus soon being copied by the jounin and defeating their original owners.

"Neji... are there any people in the houses?" Lee asked his comrade as he killed one of the last remaining sound-nins with a roundhouse kick. The man fell dead before Lee's feet, his head twisted in an unnatural angle. Not even Sakura would know how to fix 'that', Lee thought with a smirk.

Large white eyes stared ahead, seemingly looking right through the houses surrounding the Hyuga.  
After some seconds he released a soft sigh and his stoic stance relaxed slightly.

"There are only corpses. It appears Hokage the fifth has evacuated all civilians, though there is no sign that they are hiding in the monument or the mountains." Neji finished with a slight frown.

"What do you mean? Then where are they?" Lee asked, irritation audible in his voice.

"Not important, Lee." His sensei told him, laying an assuring hand on Lee's shoulder. "There's another hiding place but the location is not be revealed while there might be the enemy listening to us." Gai finished, his eyebrows knitted into a concentrated frown as he surveyed the rooftops towering above the street they were standing in.

Neji nodded absently, advancing to where Gai was. His teacher had an expression on his face the young man had come to know quite well... they weren't alone anymore. It seemed like this city was a huge nest swarming with enemies... the creatures were just waiting for the right opportunity to come out of their hiding places.

"Get your asses outta your dirty holes, bastards!" Naruto's voice suddenly errupted from beside Kakashi, evoking a heavy sigh from the older man. He had been waiting for this to come for minutes...

Suddenly a shuriken-volley showered down on the five leaf-shinobis.  
One of them graced Kakashi's left upper arm, but apart from that he had to say the sound-nins had poor aim. And when he found his comrades almost laughing about the 'hunters', he knew he wasn't the only one.

"Took ya long enough..." Was all Naruto mumbled before he dashed forward into a broken house.  
The wall crumbled into pieces when he returned, his claws digging into the shirts and skin of three ninjas that had been hiding behind it.

There was no second chance for either of them.

Kakashi, having just taken care of two enemies himself, stared wide-eyed at a large man towering above Lee.  
He had somehow managed to get the young man to fall and was preparing his final blow.

Kakashi didn't waste a second and went through a set of hand seals.  
When he finished with 'horse', the ground underneath the man started to shake violently and large roots shot out of the soil. They encircled his limbs and chest, the pressure around the body increasing and slowly suffocating the sound-nin.

A cheeky grin must have covered Kakashi's lips, because his eyes crinkled up into a smile as Lee thanked him with a slight bow as he got up again.

Suddenly, a rush of air flew past his right ear. With wide eyes, Kakashi swivelled around, finding Gai holding a man with a covered face by his collar. His feet dangled some centimeters above the ground, limply. He was obviously already dead.

"You have been more of an opponent, Kakashi! Maybe you're getting old?" Gai asked with a bright smile on his face.  
"Uhm...maybe..." Kakashi sighed exaggeratedly and dusted off some imaginary dirt of his thighs.

"We should part here." Neji's voice cut through the silence before it had time to expand. "That way we can take care of more areas and get rid of the enemies"  
"He's right, guys!" The blond young man said, kracking his knuckles and staring at a distant clouded spot in the sky.

Clearing his throat, Kakashi walked towards Naruto, hands in his trouser pockets.  
"See ya around, Gai." He said in a casual voice and disappeard on a roof.

Naruto chuckled humorlessly before he followed the silver-haired jounin.

----------

"Where are they, dammit"  
Sakura was pissed off. Big time!

Where were they?  
Shikamaru and her had been running through the village for almost an hour now, having not seen the smallest glimpse of Naruto or anybody else of the shinobis that had been sent to the border over half a day ago.

"No explosions or yelling... Naruto really is nowhere here..." Shikamaru said while jumping onto a lantern that hadn't been broken yet.

"Very funny, Shik..." The rest of her sentence came out in a rush of air when a heavy weight suddenly pressed down on Sakura's back, smashing her down into the cobblestone ground. The right side of her face felt like on fire as it scraped along the rough surface. "Urgh..." Was all she could utter as she seemed to get no air into her burning lungs.

The foot on her shoulder blade pressed down harder and out of the corner of her eye, the green eyed woman saw the gleaming metallic end of a kunai.

'Get up!' With sheer willpower, Sakura forced an arm unedrneath her chest and pushed upwards.  
Rolling onto her left side, the kunai crashed into the ground right beside her ear, small pieces of stone flying through the air from the impact and hitting her cheek.

She inhaled hastily and sat up in one fluid motion. One hand flew to the shuriken holster and wanted to pull out some of the small weapons, when a fist connected with her temple, sending her flying to the other side of the street.

For a rather long second everything was black.  
The only thing she could hear was a high-pitched humming.

In this second Sakura didn't think about the injuries that could have caused the black spots dancing through her line of view or the strange melody her brain was playing, nor did she waste it for regret.

'Where's Shika?'

Suddenly it didn't matter that she could still not entirely see her opponent (though she still didn't know 'how' many there were)  
or hear anything for that matter.  
'When you get killed, who's gonna save your friends?'

Inhaling as deeply as she could Sakura got up from the ground, jumping to the right where no distant shadows were looming around in the street, moving towards her.  
An explosion errupted from where she had been leaning against the wall and for a split second Sakura was glad her ears were only slowly regaining their function back.

She couldn't make out much, but it was enough. There was for example the dull sound of two set of boots walking up towards her and an alien, muffled voice swearing as somebody wounded him in a fight.

"Pretty babe... going to have some fun"  
The voice was only some feet away from where the young woman was still kneeling on the hard ground, praying for her senses to come back 'now'!

Looking up she found a dark shadow slowly crouching down in front of her, a hand expanding towards her head.

Sakura was low on chakra, but hell would freeze before she would give up!  
Getting up her hands flew through a complicated set of seals. In the process she had backed away from the two man as far as she could until her legs bumped into a wall.

"Stone Hail!"

A low rumble made the two sound-nins stop dead in their tracks. Frowning they stared at their surroundings, when the ground started shaking slightly.  
"What the fu..."

Suddenly the cobblestones exploded, parts of the stones as large as fists flying in high speed towards the two dumbfounded shinobis.  
Immediately they dodged the first missiles, one of them backflipping until he was at the end of the street. There he ran up the wall of a three-story apartment, thinking he was safe up there.

He was wrong.

While his teammate was already losing consciousness in the street below, he used shurikens and a kunai to repel the bullet-like stones successfully. When one larger object threatened to hit his legs, he pushed away from the wall, making a somersault in midair and breaking the attacking stones there with chakra enhanced hands.

Smiling cheekily, the sound-nin landed gracefully on another housewall, staring ahead to where Sakura was standing with hands clenched together as she fought to keep the jutsu going.  
Making up his mind he jumped to yet another house but before his feet could touch the wall a boulder the size of a head hit his back hard. Slowly his mind fogged and he had no control over his chakra anymore.

He crashed into the street and was buried underneath a mass of debris in an instant.

A third sound-nin, who had been taking care of Shika, stared wide eyed at his former teammate, when suddenly the wall behind him exploded into another stone shower.  
His already bleeding hands were no use against the unstoppable amount of stones and his vision was already blurred from both blood and some severe head-wounds.

Ducking as another stone came flying his way, he scrambled over to where Sakura was still standing, breathing heavily as she had to concentrate hard on keeping up the jutsu that ate a lot of her remaining chakra.

He had to kill her!  
With that thought in mind, he started forming a handseal. He inhaled deeply as he prepared for his own deathly jutsu, when his legs suddenly just stopped.

The ninja couldn't move an inch, his limbs having freezed. He was unable to get them to cooperate and when his eyes travelled erratically across the street he found a young man standing some meters away from him, his shadow connected with his own.

His breathing quickened and his lungs burned as he started getting hysterical.  
He knew he was trapped. He couldn't move an inch and the girl was still able to finish him off with her jutsu!

Trembling legs seemed no longer able to keep him upright but thanks to the leaf-shinobi's jutsu, he wouldn't fall. When his dilated eyes flickered across the houses searching for 'anything' that could rescue him now, they suddenly caught the moving form of the kunoichi.

And that's when he realized that the stones hadn't hit yet.

Sakura was panting heavily, sweat covering her forehead from the strain.  
That's why she had stopped her ninjutsu when she had realized that the ninja couldn't move because of Shikamaru's Kagemane no jutsu. She couldn't afford to lose any more chakra right now. Who knew for what she would need it later on!

She was only inches away from the hostile ninja when she extended an arm towards him, her right index finger already glowing dark blue, almost purple.  
Sakura pressed it against the man's temple and almost instantly his eyes stopped flickering across her face and his eyelids closed halfway.

"Let him go, Shika." Sakura instructed her friend in a quiet voice, who obeyed gladly as he could finally let go of the man and sack down against a tree.  
The leaf-nin slumped to the ground dead, some blood trickling out of his ears.

Closing her eyes for a second, Sakura inhaled deeply and turned then back to where Shikamaru was leaning heavily against the tree for support. His left arm was bent at a funny angle and a large gash at his head's side bleeded profoundly.  
Walking up towards him, she crouched down by his side, her hands immediately flying towards his arm.

"Don't." He told her softly, looking into her tired eyes. "You'll need that energy for patients in worse condition"  
Smiling softly, Sakura's hand started glowing.  
"If I don't heal that now, it'll be a problem later and you can't use any jutsu... and won't be able to rescue me or anybody else."

Sighing in defeat, Shikamaru stared at the rooftop on the other side of the street. He could feel the warmth of Sakura's chakra flowing into his arm, his bones shifting back into their original position without any pain.  
It was done in less than a minute and when he looked back down at his arm, only a hematoma reminded him of the painful fracture.

Sakura sat down beside him, using her arm to wipe away the sweat, blood and dirt from her forehead.  
She was exhausted to the bones and didn't even know for how much longer she would be able to stand upright.

Her left hand wandered to her pouch filled with medical supplies and fished out a small box with pills.  
"Here." She offered her comrade one of them and swallowed a red pill herself. "Soldier pill... gonna need the energy boost"  
"Probably..." Shikamaru muttered before gulping down the pill dry.

Before either of them had time to relax, a noise caught both Shika's and Sakura's attention.  
It had come from the right side of the street and was advancing quickly towards them.

Both shinobis jumped up, getting ready to fight their new opponent, when suddenly the green spandex suit of Lee came into view.  
"Sakura!" He yelled as he finally came to a halt in front of them, breathing heavily and sweat dripping down his thick brows.

"Lee! God, you're alright!" Sakura hugged the perplexed young man tightly against her chest.  
"I-I... We need you! I've been looking for you for twenty minutes already!"

Frowning, Sakura let go of her friend and regarded him with a blank look.  
"Tenten! We found her near the Uchiha mansions! She's injured badly!"

Eyes widening in shock, Sakura didn't even realize that she started to move.  
Her hand gripped tightly onto both Shikamaru's and Lee's, dragging them along behind her as she ran through the street and jumped onto the first roof.

Immediately Lee took the lead and headed towards the northern end of the village where the Uchiha district was with the abandoned stores and houses.

'Dammit!', Sakura thought angrily, making a fist as she prayed silently that it wasn't as bad as Lee had said.

Tenten was pregnant.  
She was in the eighth month already and should have been evacuated along with the rest of the villagers.  
Apparently, Tenten had been just like always. Hotheaded and not willing to just leave the fight to the rest of the leaf-shinobis.

It had only been Tsunade's threat that she had taken the offered maternity leave at all some two months ago!  
Even her soon-to-be husband hadn't been able to get her to take it slow.  
"Is Neji alone with her?" Sakura asked, concern lacing her voice.

"Yes. Gai-sensei is searching for you elsewhere!" Lee answered during a jump across a street.

Hyuga Neji, the best jounin of his age and owner of the powerful Byakugan had never been the person to lose his cool, but when it came to his fiancee and their unborn child, the man was nothing but a hysterically crying baby.

He was not able to think properly when anything happened to Tenten.

A small smile played at Sakura's lips when she remembered the day he had learned of Tenten's pregnancy.  
She had been allowed to break the news to them and had thanked Tsunade later for having given her this opportunity to see the Hyuga lose it.

The black-haired man had stared blanky at the medical nin, not noticing the tear-stricken face of his happy girlfriend as she gripped his hand so tightly that it had turned purple. Sakura had even made him sit down when his knees had started to buckle.

But Tenten wasn't the picture-book mother Sakura had wished for and she had had a hard time getting the other woman to take it more easy. Tenten had refused to stop training until she had had some contractions during one of her harder workouts.  
Sakura had been able to prevent her from going into labour but the ordered bed rest had only lasted for a week.

"Do you know why she wasn't in the hideout?" Sakura wanted to know.  
"No, but it seemes she has fought against five sound-nins. When we arrived they were dead and Tenten was propped up against a house. She's bleeding pretty bad and it seemes she's in labour." Lee told her in a controlled voice. "Neji refused to leave or transport her."

Sakura nodded, already starting to plan her next moves.  
Tenten was her prior concern. Even if that ment losing the child, the mother had to come first!

"There!" Lee's voice cut through her train of thoughts as he pointed to where two figures half sat half lay on the hard ground.

The green-eyed woman jumped down the last roof and landed some meters away from her friends. She ran straight towards them,giving her brain no time to access the situation.  
She kneeled down immediately beside Tenten and checked her neck for a pulse. Finding a faint but steady rhythm, she breathed a sigh of relief.

When her eyes travelled down the other woman's body she was shocked to find a large wound gaping open at the side of her belly.  
It looked like a katana had sliced right through the side, having damaged at least a kidney and the liver judging by the large amount of dark blood.

Forming the handseals 'tiger' and 'dog', Sakura's right hand pressed down onto the gaping hole, a dark pink chakra being emitted from her five fingers as they worked on fixing the most severe wounds.  
Sakura's left hand wandered down Tenten's hip and between her legs, feeling for signs of how far she was in labour.

"Dammit..." The child was on its way and this time Sakura wouldn't be able to prevent it from being born.

"Tenten? Can you hear me"  
But the unconscious woman didn't answer, the only response being a sharp intake of breath as another contraction hit her. Her sweaty brow was knitted together, making her look like she was thinking hard about something.  
It wasn't a good sign at all.

"Neji, Lee, Shika, have you something to cover the baby and Tenten with? Night's gonna be too cold for them!" Sakura asked as she looked down to where the hole in Tenten's side slowly closed, the bleeding having already stopped.  
Carefully not to let go of the wound, Sakura crawled around her friend's side to where her legs were open and slightly bent.

"I'll find something, Sakura!" Lee almost shouted and went off into search for blankets or anything resembling one.  
Sakura didn't miss the slight nervous edge to his normally steady, bright voice.

Sighing, her eyes gazed up to where Neji was sitting behind Tenten, his arms slung aroung her protectively as her head lay in his lap. He was white as a sheet and breathing irregularly as he kept on staring down at his fiancee's greyish face.

He was in shock!

"Neji!... Neji! Dammit! I can't have you going crazy on me now! Think about Tenten and get a grip!" She almost yelled, hoping to get his attention that way, while she couldn't get away from where she was feeling for the head of the unborn inbetween Tenten's legs.

"Tenten..." He suddenly whispered, his eyes starting to brim with tears.  
At least he reacted to Sakura's voice.  
"If you don't stay focused, you can't help her!" She really wanted to slap him hard! Now was neither the time nor the place to lose it!

'SLAP'

Looking up for a second, she found Neji looking up stunned at his friend Shikamaru, who had just hit him with his fist right into his face. Neji's cheek was red and he had to blink a few times to re-focus.  
"How troublesome..." Shika muttered when he found the other young man gripping harder onto his pale girlfriend.  
At least he responded...

"S-sorry... I wasn't there..." He mumbled suddenly as tears started rolling down his cheeks.

Swearing silently under her breath, Sakura watched out of the corner of her eyes as Shikamaru put a supporting hand on Neji's shoulder. Where the hell was Lee when she needed him?  
But her mind didn't get the chance to follow the thought further when her hand suddenly made contact with the soft head of the baby.

It wouldn't take much longer, but when she checked the vital signs of Tenten, the fear that she wouldn't make it grew rapidly in Sakura. She would have to take care of her first!

"Sakura?" Startled, she looked up. Her eyes found the glassy ones of Tenten staring tiredly back at her.  
"Save... my child."

--------------------

FINIS!

Du-du-duuuuuumm! What will happen... hmmm... maybe you wanna know as well? Get in line and review! The review-monster is hungry. See ya around! XD

Oh, got a question! Does anybody know what 'little sister' means in japan? Please tell me! Than in advance!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's notes: 

Thank you all soooo much for the great, encouraging reviews! Kisses and hugs to you all! Thanks go also (as always...) to my sis... maybe I have to use 'that'! Du-du-duuummmm!

From now on, I have to untie the monstrous mess aka story plot of 'Darkening Horizon' in my brain... which is quite complicated, so I'm open for any kind of suggestions and maybe one pairing or another you desire will have a major appearance.  
--------------------

Dead.

The man in the green spandex suit closed his eyes for a moment, carefully letting go of the heavy, limp body. He listened as it touched the ground, the material of the dead man's clothes rustling in the burnt grass of the small backyard.

The dead was a medical nin.  
A medical ninja, he had and still 'needed' desperately!

Lee and Gai had departed from where Neji was waiting with a badly injured Tenten already more than forty minutes ago and until now, the only medical nins Gai had found were dead... mostly barely recognizable as such anymore.

When Gai opened his eyes again, he allowed them to wander across the small area lying hidden between high houses.

A barely breathing sound nin leaned against a wall that looked like it would crumble any second. Kunais stuck out of his battered body and a large wound gaped open that reached from his sternum to the neck.

The jounin's gaze wandered towards a third unmoving figure not far away from him. The woman had a partly closed wound at her back. It seemed the medic had tried to rescue her when the sound nin had probably appeared and had killed him... and therefor the kunoichi he had taken care of.

Heaving a deep sigh, Gai got up from the ground and nodded respectfully towards the two fallen comrades.

"The only place where I could find someone now, is the Hokage tower..." Gai mused out loud.

He wasn't afraid of anybody hearing him.  
No. The opposite was the case!

The more hostile ninjas took notice of him, the more of them Gai could get rid of.  
He had already observed, that ever since he and the other two hundred shinobis had returned, there were much less sound nins swarming the village. He had even found two dead giant snakes on his way to get help.

Leaf would be victorious.  
There was no doubt about that in the black-haired man's mind.

Looking up towards the high rooftops of the houses, Gai decided on one that looked like it wouldn't collapse as soon as a bird landed on it.  
Within an eye's blink he was on top of it, getting a good view of the western border of Konohagakure. In the distance he could see a monstrous snake crashing houses under its massive body. Small dots surrounding it, like flies on a warm summer day.

Everytime one of those dots came near the snake body, a small explosion would be set off.  
The snake didn't seem to care. It just kept on swinging its large tail and burying houses underneath it.

Gai's eyes flickered to his left when suddenly goose bumps rose on his arms and something lurched inside his stomach. It was a feeling like waking up when you knew you were being watched sleeping.

Slowly, the black haired man stood rigidly on the house, hands clenched tightly into fists by his side. He was ready to punch the living daylight out of whoever had felt the need to startle him! He just hoped for once it was Kakashi...

"Oi! Now look who's there!" A voice errupted from behind Gai. It sounded like the owner of it had found something very funny, the light tone of the voice making Gai stand on edge.

"He is none of our concern." Another darker, calm voice interrupted the other man's laughing and silenced him effectively.

Gai knew the owner of the voices without having to see them.  
"Itachi..." He uttered under his breath and turned around fully, facing the two man determinedly.

"Heya! Don't tell me ya can't remember me!" The taller shark-like man roared. "You don't only look like an ugly beast, ya also got its brains!" He chuckled humorlessly, his dark eyes gleaming in apparent excitement as he regarded Gai with a long,  
piercing look.

"Kisame, be silent or I will see to it." Itachi told his companion in a steady voice, slowly lifting his gaze and revealing his pinwheel eyes from underneath a large straw hat. A small bell cut through the silence like a sword, making Gai fight against a lump in his throat.

'What are they doing here?' He asked himself. 'They aren't here with Orochimaru, are they?'

"We are here on our own, Gai." Like a knife, Itachi broke into his train of thoughts, gaining the man's attention at once.  
"It would be very helpful if you could please tell us the whereabouts of Uzumaki Naruto." The nuke-nin asked Gai very politely.

But Itachi's intense stare revealed his true intensions.

Chuckling, Gai put his hands onto his hip, one corner of his mouth pulling up into a lopsided grin.  
"That's the reason?... I am sorry to tell you that even if I knew where he was, I would hardly give you any information."

Gai looked straight into the crimson red eyes of the younger man. "I also can't let the two of you just go. You realize that, don't you Itachi?"

With that, Gai straightened visibly, one arm behind his back and the other one pointing into the direction of his two opponents.  
His open hand beckoned them to get started as his eyes glinted provocatively.

"Is that so." Itachi asked. It almost sounded like he was already bored, having accepted the answer of the older man and would leave. But judging by the way he tilted his head slightly to the left, his eyes flickering to Kisame for a split second, they wouldn't go without a proper fight.

"Leave that wannabe beast to me, Itachi!" Grinning maliciously, Kisame grabbed the hilt of his Samehade and pulled it out from behind his back, allowing the massive sword to rest on the dirty ground in front of him.  
"I'll see ya in an hour at the west gate with that fox brat, Itachi!"

The grin on his face turned into a large smile as the shark-man bared his sharp, white teeth in the setting sun.  
He never turned towards his much smaller comrade and therefor didn't see the slight nod of his head. Neither did he take notice of a small group of sound nins running past in the streets below.

Kisame's eyes were trained on Gai, the smile never faltering.

Getting into a more comfortable position, he took the sword into a firmer grip and pointed the end of it at Gai's chest.  
"Run, beast!"

----------

"Sakura! I've found a blanket!"

Breathing heavily, the young kunoichi looked up startled when she found a woolen cloth being pushed into her line of view.  
"Good, Lee... get down beside me..." Halting mid-sentence, Sakura closed her eyes for a moment when she found her vision being blurred from exhaustion.

She had been kneeling on the hard ground for the last ten minutes now and still the wound on Tenten's abdomen hadn't closed completely. There just wasn't enough chakra left in her drained body to heal it!

'Dammit, dammit!' She yelled in her mind as she felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes.  
She couldn't help her. Sakura wouldn't be able to save Tenten 'and' the baby! There was no chance in hell, that the last chakra she still had in her system after over one day of healing and fighting, would be enough for them both!

Tenten was losing the battle... Sakura could feel it. It was like the body crumpled internally... as if the last energy reserves shrank back into the most important organs like heart, lungs and brain.  
The medic nin had been healing enough deadly wounded to know when there was no hope left and Tenten was on the verge between life and death...

"Sakura!" There was a firm hand gripping her right shoulder as Lee's loud voice penetrated the haze in her clouded mind.  
"What do I have to do to help you!"

That was right.  
Lee was there. And Shikamaru and Neji.

They were watching her, trusting her to rescue the two lives.  
Sakura hadn't worked so hard, had learned night and day, had strained her body and brain so much to disappoint them and herself so easily now! That was not the way Tsunade had taught her.

"The baby will be there after the next contraction! Hold the blanket under Tenten and take the baby carefully!" Sakura's throat was dry and sore and it was hard to keep the slight tremble out of her voice, but when she looked up, there was no disapproval or disappointment in Lee's warm eyes.

He just smiled gently at her as he crouched down beside Sakura and did as he was instructed.

Exhaling sharply, Sakura doubled her efforts in closing the wound in Tenten's side, her hand glowing in a brighter bluish light now. She'd rather use the last bit of her energy than allow her friend to lose either her life or her child!

"I've got it!" The excited voice of Lee errupted suddenly from beside her.  
"Alright! Shika, come over here... use a lace to put a tourniquet on the umbilical cord. Then take a kunai and cut it!"

She heard a low grumble from the genius that sounded suspiciously like 'how troublesome', but Sakura ignored it pointedly and watched as he did as he was told to, cutting the cord in one fluid motion.

As soon as the new born was no longer linked to its mother, Lee didn't waste a second and hastily pulled out the gurgling bundle from underneath Tenten, cradling it carefully in his arms to protect it from the cold air of the beginning night.

"Lee, check its vital signs! And clear its mouth and nose from amnionic fluid! Are there any injuries you can see or has it problems breathing?" The orders came out of Sakura's mouth without her thinking about it. These were the first things she would have done, but right now both her hands had built a seal mere millimeters above Tenten's now rapidly closing wound.

Brows knitted together in concentration, the young man started to examine the small form with alert eyes.  
He used his fingers and the blanket to clean the child's orifices from the liquid and listened as it tried to scream the first time. It still sounded like water was blocking its trachea, but after some seconds, the gurgling had almost ceased completely and the baby started to cry in a loud, strong voice.

"He's breathing normally and apart from a small scratch, there are no external injuries I can see!" Lee told his friend in a content voice, when he suddenly heard a sharp intake of breath.

"'He'? It's a boy?" Neji asked in a whisper as his white eyes stared affectionately at the squirming bundle in his friend's arms.

"Yes, a boy!" Lee comfirmed happily, crawling over to where Neji was still kneeling on the cobblestone ground, Tenten's head lying motionless in his lap. She hand't uttered a word ever since she had begged Sakura to save the baby instead of her some minutes ago.

Sighing in relief, Sakura watched as the last inch of the wound finally closed, leaving behind immaculate white skin that stood out grossly against the crimson colored parts of the rest of Tenten's body.

Black and white spots started dancing across Sakura's vision when her arms started shaking from the straining procedure.  
Her chest seemed to refuse to heave properly, lungs burning from the lack of oxygen.

'They're fine... they're fine...' Like a mantra, the pink-haired medic repeated the sentence over and over in her brain.

Slowly her mind fogged and the voice of her friends got more and more distant. Sakura's back ached and she could feel that her muscles wouldn't keep her up much longer.

"Sakura..." Her eyes wandered to the blurred form of Neji, his voice seemingly miles away.  
"Thank you..."

----------

Lips pursed, the young man watched as the pink-haired kunoichi fell over, landing in a miserable heap beside her unconscious patient.  
A friend of her with black hair and a ponytail rushed immediately towards her, catching her head before it could hit the ground.

Eyes narrowed, the man got up from where he had been kneeling for the last ten minutes, having watched the dramatic scene without any emotions displayed.  
"So, you got stronger." He mumbled, staring at Sakura as she fought against unconsciousness, his red eyes with the three pinwheel wings slowly spinning.

----------

"Hey, Jiraya!"

Turning his head slightly to his right, he glanced sideways at his female friend.  
"What?"

Ramming her fist into the chest of her opponent, Tsunade sent him flying into the other three sound nins. They hit the other end of the street with a sound thud... unmoving. After that she cracked her knuckles and walked over to where the man with the spiky white hair stood, waiting patiently for her to return.

"Ya know that this is gonna end in hell for us, right?" Tsunade nodded to where a gigantic snake towered high above the village.  
On top of it, a small dark figure stood solemnly.

They both knew 'who' the figure was.

"Orochimaru isn't the only one inventing jutsus, now is he?" The sannin asked with a grin.  
"Nope... gonna kick his pale ass until it gets some color back..." Tsunade inhaled quickly before jumping onto a roof, listening as Jiraya followed her immediately.

They had one chance.  
Not more.

If they couldn't defeat the snake-sannin within this window of opportunity, the plan had failed and either some brainy guy had another marvelous idea then or Konoha was officially mud. And to be frank, Tsunade was fairly sure not a soul in this village knew another way to get Orochimaru. She had, after all, been working on the problem of killing her former comrade with the top ninjas of Konohagakure and this plan, this jutsu, was the best thing they had been able to come up with.

"Then you've got one hell of a job there!" Jiraya chuckled. Catching up to the medical nin, he put a gentle hand on her left shoulder and squeezed it lightly.

"Ya know...", Tsunade started, but got interrupted by two shuriken that barely missed her nose.  
Glaring down at the two sound nins, she pulled out a kunai and threw it down at the enemies.

The sharp weapon flew straight through the first man and hit the second one in the middle of his chest. They collapsed almost at the same time and Tsunade didn't give them a second thought as she looked back to where Jiraya was now heading, having taken the lead.

"I hope the kids behave." She continued her earlier thoughts and gained a small sigh from the man.  
"They'll be fine. They'll do the right thing when it comes to it." Jiraya finished wih a grin, watching the monster come nearer by the second.

The giant snake was staring right at them, the person on its head now clearly visible as he stood facing them with arms crossed firmly over his chest.  
The hem of his clothes moved slightly in the wind as he waited patiently for his former teammates to finally arrive.

"He's still the bitch we know and love, right, Tsunade"  
"Yeah... leave him some fun as long as he can still smile..."

They had neared the eastern end of the village and the large apartment houses had turned gradually into small bungalows and large mansions with formally beautiful gardens.

They had reached the Hyuuga estate.

Frowning, Jiraya watched as Manda lifted its massive body slightly off of the ground and gained some twenty meters of hight. A dark cloud of dust and debris rose from where it had been lying, making it impossible to see anything beyond it.

"We'll have to get him out of the village... otherwise the village will be a mess even without you breaking houses and streets with your impressive madness." Jiraya told Tsunade with a mock-smile, ducking as she attempted to get a hold of his hair.  
"Though you're an idiot, you're right... let's drag him into the forest!"

----------

"Woooa! Stop waving around that thing, Naruto!"

Watching as the katana came again way too near his face, Kakashi took the opportunity and caught it with his bare hands in mid-swing.

Naruto might have been the number one surprise ninja and not only Kakashi trusted him with his life, but when it came to weapons other than shurikens and kunais, he was the most dangerous person for both enemy and friend... which Kakashi had learned painfully some half a year ago, when he had thought it would be wise to show Naruto how to use senbons.

Breathing heavily, Naruto looked at the person who had grabbed the sword before he had had the chance to use it. His eyes had long ago turned into cat-like slits and his eyetooths had mutated into long fangs. And all he wanted to do right now, was bury the sword he had ripped out of the foe's grasp some seconds ago in the sound nin's chest.

"What!" He barked out in a hoarse voice, not loosening the grip around the sound ninja's collar as he pressed him into a wall.

"Ya know, this'll gonna end in a damn disaster if you don't stop acting like a, lets say, kyubi." Kakashi answered in calm voice,  
letting the sword fall from his now bleeding hand. He put it into his pocket, waving around with his other one as he continued in a much lighter tone.

Judging by the way his eyes suddenly crinkled up, a smile was apparently on his hidden lips.  
"In which case I'd have to hit you so hard, that even Sakura would be proud of me."

Kakashi could see how Naruto's jaws clenched and unclenched rhythmically at that as he fought for control.  
His former sensei was right. He had again allowed the fox-demon to take over.

Even though he was still in possession of his mind, there was that damn insistent voice somewhere calling in a dark corner of his mind, telling him to rip apart every human being that he came across. Telling him how good the fresh, warm blood smelled when it gushed out of wounds and spilled onto his claws. Telling him to forget that fucking, silver-haired bastard and go to where the real fight was raging on...

"Phew... you'll have some pretty scars there." The light voice of Kakashi penetrated the haze that had threatened to take over Naruto again.

'I'm still in control.' The blond young man told himself, closing his eyes for a second as he forced his fingers away from around the now dead man's neck and opened his other hand to reveal four puncture wounds were his claws had dug hard into his own flesh.

The second time that day...

Lowering his gaze, Kakashi stared at his own bloodied boots and sighed.  
Most of the crimson liquid wasn't his own and it reminded him of how many hostile ninjas the two of them had already killed.

When he strained his ears he noticed longer periods of silence between explosions and screams, telling him that the leaf-shinobis were gaining the upper hand in this dirty game. A game in which the lives of thousands were at stake.

"Sorry..." Naruto almost whispered as he headed to where the older man was standing beside five dead sound nins, watching his boots as he was apparently deep in thoughts.  
"Not a prob. Just try to stay focused." Kakashi smiled warmly down at his friend, scratching the back of his head.

Exhaling soundly, Naruto relaxed visibly.

"We should find somebody in charge... my best guess is that either Sakura or Shikamaru are in the Hokage tower planning strategies and taking care of the injured." Kakashi mused out loud, looking up where he could see the first signs of the large famous building. "Tsunade herself is probably on her way to take care of Orochimaru..."

"I guess she's not alone."

Frowning slightly, Kakashi followed Naruto's gaze.  
He had to blink several times to adjust to the dark night sky. The streets were all slightly illuminated from the burning houses and stores and occasional explosions gave extra 'light', which caused a great difference between sky and ground.

Somewhere in the distance near the eastern outlines of the village, a giant snake got forced backwards into the forest by a monstrous red toad. A large amount of dust rose from where houses got crashed and trees snapped like matches from the enormous power of the two beasts.

The saying 'the beginning of the end' lingered on Kakashi's tongue, but he swallowed it down just like the heavy sigh that threatened to escape him.

They would soon find out 'whose' end had begun...

----------

"Sakura..."

"Shh... try to sleep. We'll take care of everything"  
Putting a comforting hand onto Tenten's forehead, Sakura heaved a heavy sigh.

To her dismay, her palm found the soft skin of her friend slightly damp and warm.  
The weapons specialist was running a fever.

"Shika, get me my pouch." She told her friend in a whisper, wiping off the cold sweat from Tenten's face carefully.  
"Here... what do you need?"

"There is a small bottle with yellow liquid in there"  
Rolling her shoulders to work out the strain in them, she listened as her friend rummaged through the content of her small medical bag. She knew that the fever was a normal reaction to the sever wound Tenten had had, but she had to get it under control nonetheless. The young woman's battered body was too weak from blood loss and having given birth in such a stressful situation that Sakura feared Tenten wouldn't be able to handle the fever on her own.

"Here." Shikamaru gave his comrade a small bottle and watched in fascination as the kunoichi gently gave Tenten a small amount of the yellowish fluid.

When Sakura looked up, she found the worried eyes of Hyuga Neji watching every move of both his fiancee and the medical nin like an eagle.

Behind her she could hear a hushed conversation between Shikamaru and Lee who was still cradling the newborn lovingly in his arms. Sakura knew, he would rather die than let anything come near the defenseless baby.

Which brought her mind back to the topic.

Twenty minutes had passed since Sakura had collapsed. And though she had been able to stay conscious and even get back up after several minutes, she was still in no condition to help Lee and Shika fight against possible attackers. And in addition to that she had a woman that slipped in and out of conscious and a baby to take care of, not to mention the emotional wrack of a man who could under normal circumstances kill with closed eyes and arms tied behind his back.

And she still had to find Naruto.  
He had to be her utmost priority now!

"Shika, Lee, come over here." She ordered in almost a whisper.  
"What is it?" Lee asked in a concerned tone of voice. "Is Tenten alright?"

Smiling, Sakura nodded.  
"Get them out of here."

Gaining deep frowns from both Shikamaru and Lee, she continued.  
"Neji can't take care of Tenten, the baby 'and' the sound nins that are still running around here." Her eyes flickered to the five dead hostile shinobis. Shika nodded absently, making a face as he rose from the ground.

'At least he knows what I want to say...' Sakura thought and concentrated now fully on Lee and Neji instead.

"Lee, you and Shikamaru go with them. Get as fast as possible to the border and try to reach Suna! You can't use the secret passageway... Tsunade herself sealed it and besides, you'd attract unwanted attention from the sound nins and would therefor endanger the civilians in their hiding place."

"She's right. The only way to get them into safety is through the forest." Shika continued, stepping forward and carefully lifting Tenten up from the ground. He had covered her in a blanket Lee had brought along some minutes ago.

"Most sound nins are still here in Konohagakue... they aren't retreating yet and escaping through the forest shouldn't be a problem for you guys." She grinning boyishly up at them, causing Lee's cheeks to turn slightly red. "And besides, it's night, which means that the chance of escaping unnoticed is higher now and with Neji's Byakugan, there shouldn't be any problems finding the enemy before they find you, right?"

Neji nodded in agreement, carefully taking Tenten from Shikamaru and pressing her protectively against his chest.

"When you reach Suna," Sakura consciously used 'when' and not 'if', "give them this"  
Taking a small sheet of paper, she hastily scribbled something onto it. Her friends watched her with a frown.  
"Tsunade has already sent a message to them about our status, so this is not about the war. It's about the treatment Tenten needs... she's still not out of the woods, so hurry."

"And you"  
Startled, Sakura regarded Lee with a bewildered look.  
"You can't tell me that you want to run around in such a condition! Somebody has to stay here and protect you!"

Exhaling soundly, Sakura got up from the hard cobblestone ground, wincing when her arms and legs protested painfully.  
She knew this was stupid, but well... she was a medic and the patient was king, so to say! She still had her little trump card and was pretty sure she could take care of herself until she had found Naruto. What happened afterwards lay still hidden within darkness, but she would handle whatever fate threw at her!

"It looks like you will have to carry a baby... and not the damsel in distress." She winked at Lee and turned around, facing away from the three men. "Don't worry! I've still got some tricks up my sleeve!"

"Wait, Sakura!" Frowning, she turned around to Shikamaru, finding the young man holding a small letter in his outstretched hand. It was sealed and the sign of Konoha covered the front in a bright green.  
"It's from Tsunade. She told me to give it to Naruto after the battle, but now it seems I can't do the job anymore." He told her solemnly and shoved it into her open palm.

Worried, Sakura put it into her pouch, wondering silently why Tsunade couldn't do it herself.  
"Be careful, Sakura." Lee told her in a concerned voice, gaining a small smile from the kunoichi.

With that, she collected enough chakra in her feet to jump onto a nearby house.  
She didn't turn back around, instead waving a in blood covered hand 'goodbye' at her friends, before vanishing in the darkness.

Not wasting another second, she headed straight into the only direction she and Shika hadn't searched, yet.  
He had to be there.

It wasn't far from her current position and with any luck she would find him within the next ten minutes.

----------

"Like cockroaches." Naruto mumbled under his breath, when another sound nin fell dead onto his already fallen comrade.  
"This starts to get old..."

Sighing, Kakashi unclenched his fist and looked with tired eyes at the pile of human bodies to his right. He wasn't in the mood to count the number of enemies they had killed within the last ten minutes, but he had noticed that the period of time between new attacks was slowly growing, meaning that the number of sound nins in the village was gradually decreasing.

Good news on a bad day.

"If that doesn't stop, we'll never reach the Hokage tower!" Naruto complained soundly, walking over towards Kakashi, arms akimbo.

The silver-haired jounin knew Naruto's rambling was his own strange way of expressing concern.  
Kakashi, though still far from breaking down, felt his muscles starting to tire. Numerous wounds covering his body wouldn't stop bleeding and there wasn't enough time to take care of them, resulting in even greater exhaustion... and he had only fought three hours now!

Naruto had surely already realized that most dead leaf shinobis were the result of physical exhaustion.  
Without the top ninjas protecting the village, even genins had been forced to participate in this battle and after fourteen hours straight of fighting, even the fittest ninja didn't stand a chance against a superior strength.

"She's alright, Naruto." Kakashi smiled gently under his mask, trying to convince Naruto just as much as himself.  
"I know... It would be just better to see her to make sure that..."

"Narutooooo!"

Startled, the blond young man looked up, eyes flickering across the rooftops to find the voice of the person who had called him.  
There!

"Sakura..." He whispered incredulously, not noticing the same bewildered look on Kakashi's face.  
'Speeking of the devil...' He thought amused when his former student came into view.

Sakura was waving a hand into their direction, the blood on her clothes and skin not going unnoticed by neither Kakashi nor Naruto.  
But she seemed to be alright... well, as much as one can be in a war.

"Sakura!" A large smile threatened to split Naruto's face in two as he jumped onto the house Sakura would land on soon, closely followed by the copy ninja.

"Naruto! He's here!" She yelled, not caring that somebody could see or hear her. "Itachi... he's here!"

Eyes widening with realization, he watched her land on the last house before the one on which he was standing, when suddenly a dark energy appeared seemingly out of the nowhere, materializing where Sakura was currently running towards them.

Mouth slightly agape, Naruto watched in horror as a figure in a black cloak, covered with red clouds, appeared directly behind Sakura.  
The young kunoichi noticed the presence apparently at the same time, her hand flying to the shuriken holster at her leg in an instant. She stopped dead and swivelled around on the spot, just to find a hand already holding her wrist tightly in an iron grip.

"She is right, Uzumaki Naruto."

--------------------

FINIS?

WHAAAAAAAT? Argh! What the hell is going on there? Tell me what you think about it and I'll try to find the answers in the secret book I hid in the terrarium of my snake (no his name is not Orochi... though my sis would love that ;P )... nobody will ever dare to go 'there'! Muahahahahahaha!


	3. Chapter 3

Author's notes: I want to use the chance to apologize to you for not having updated sooner. Uni was a bitch and I had two internships in chemistry and physics and to be frank I was happy when I got five minutes to get out of lab to inhale some fresh air. 

I would also like to thank everyone who reviewed! I love you guys!

Just a warning: From now on, I'll be using stuff from very recent manga chapters, so if you havn't read them and don't want to get spoiled (I have already lost my innocence... what a shame! Bad girl...), either don't read this chappy at all (which would devastate me!) or start after the first part. You are all warned!

Oh, and thanks/hugs/kisses/punches go to my sis for playing muse again and kicking asses when she had to... ouch!

--------------------

"Narutoooo"  
Yelling his name at the top of her lungs, Sakura focused more chakra, even if that wasn't much in her current condition, into her feet. She gained immediately speed and rushed over the houses as fast as she could, waving a hand at her friend.

She could see him standing between two rows of houses, his eyes fixated on her in obvious disbelief.  
Just some feet behind him, their former sensei Kakashi was standing, a deep frown on his forehead as he watched her come nearer.

They were alright.

Sakura could see some minor wounds and blood on their clothes, but she guessed most of it belonger to the bodies lying scattered all around the two shinobis. And judging by the way the two moved smoothly up to the roof she would soon land on, she knew she was right with her diagnosis.

'They wouldn't dare get hurt seriously... they're too afraid of my wrath.', she thought with a small smile.

That they were still in one piece and the fact that Naruto smiled almost like a maniac also meant that they hadn't encountered any Akatsuki member, particularly Uchiha Itachi, yet. This allowed her to inhale in relief. They had a chance to find him, before 'he' found 'them'!

"Naruto! He's here!" Sakura landed on the last roof before the one Naruto and Kakashi were waiting on. "Itachi... He's here!"

Sakura watched as Naruto's facial expression turned from utter joy into bewilderment and soon into shock and even horror.  
His mouth hung slightly open as he stared at her, eyes wide and filled with so many emotions, that the pink-haired kunoichi had problems grasping them all.

When she was only about twenty meters away from the two men, she noticed the way Naruto's eyes stared seemingly into nothingness just behind her shoulder. And at first she thought she had just miscalculated the direction in which he was looking. But then she felt it...

Like a cold wind some kind of dark chakra materialized behind her, making her feel like somebody was sitting on her chest.  
Her breath came out in a short gasp as she stopped dead and swivelled around on the spot. Her hand shot to the half-empty shuriken holster at her leg, fishing out a weapon and bringing it up to the person behind her within an eye's blink.

But before the shuriken was even at the hight of the man's chest, Sakura felt a hand wrapping around her wrist in an iron grip.  
He had blocked her attack in such a blinding speed, that she couldn't prevent the surprised shriek from escaping her throat.

Totally shocked, Sakura stared into the bloody red of two sharingans.

"She is right, Uzumaki Naruto." The calm voice of the man sounded loud in the silence of Sakura's ears, echoing through her mind until she thought she couldn't bear it any longer.

"Itachi, you ass! Leave her alone!" Naruto yelled, anger dripping like venom from every word he spat.

The eldest Uchiha didn't seem to be impressed in the slightest.  
Instead of letting go of Sakura he squeezed her wrist tighter, pressing the sinews until her hand opened painfully, the shuriken clattering soundly onto the roof.

Still, Sakura didn't move. No, that was wrong. She 'couldn't' move!

Her mind was completely drawn into his spinning sharingan. It almost felt like a current, pulling her deeper and deeper into the dark depths of an ocean, drowning her in a crimson liquid...

"Sakura!"

Blinking, she found herself still standing in front of Itachi, his hand tightly wrapped around her wrist. He hadn't moved an inch, eyes staring impassively into her own.  
He didn't even budge when two dozen shuriken and kunai showered down on him. He merely used one of the deadly objects to dodge the others. They ricocheted with a loud metallic clank and whizzed unimpressed into another direction, landing in house walls and lanterns.

'Have to do something...', Sakura thought, tearing her eyes away from his with much effort. They flickered across his face and the area around his head in an irratic pattern, searching desperately for 'anything' she could use against him!

Suddenly there was a small shift of his hand around her forearm and in an instant, Sakura's mind focused on it.

Jaws clenched almost painfully, she forced a small amount of chakra into her arm and then into her index finger. With a minimal movement, nearly impossible to detect with the bare eye, Sakura bent her finger towards Itachi's hand, intending to get her deadly chakra into his channels. It would go straight to his treasured sharingan and at least cause some damage...

Closing his eyes for a second, Itachi increased the pressure around Sakura's arm and bent her wrist into an unnatural angle.  
It snapped with a sickening 'crack'.

Sakura listened with morbid fascination, thinking, that it sounded almost like Chouji crunching happily on his favourite crisps.  
She didn't move when the first wave of agonizing pain bolted through her arm and down her spine. Sakura didn't cry out when Itachi pulled her wrist towards his torso, bones grinding against each other in the process.

Breathing heavily, Sakura watched as the man moved towards her face, pressing her trembling body against his chest.  
"You should use your energy for other things, little kunoichi."

The hair at the back of her neck stood at end when his lips brushed lightly against her ear, his breath hot against her cold skin. Small beads of cold sweat appeared above her brows and she felt one trickling down the side of her pale features.  
Suddenly Itachi pulled away, letting go of her throbbing wrist and pushing her away from his close proximity.

She landed in a miserable heap, new searing pain clawing at her mind when she used her injured hand to cushion the impact with the hard roof. Tears shot unforbidden into her eyes, blurring everything around her.

"You bastard!" Naruto's voice errupted in front of her. Immediately Sakura focused on the swimming image of the young man as he dashed towards Itachi, a glowing blue ball in his outstratched palm.

Naruto thrust it straight at the Uchiha, but missed spectacularly.  
Itachi had already moved to the side, the bored expression on his face not changing a bit. With a gracefulness only mastered by few excellent ninjas his hand moved up towards Naruto's shoulder in a blur. He poked two fingers seemingly lightly into the orange material of Naruto's jacket, but the power in the slender digits was enough to send Naruto flying through the air.

Brows knitted together in both pain and bewilderment, Sakura watched as the body of her friend dissolved into white smoke.  
"Kage Bunshin..." She mumbled, eyes searching frantically for the blond man.

"Sakura, we have to move"  
The soft voice of her former sensei startled her, her head spinning around to find Kakashi's gentle eyes smiling down at her.  
He already had his hands under her arms, forcing her into a standing position.  
Sakura accepted the help without a word, merely nodding when Kakashi made a move to run to a 'safe' place.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!"

In the corner of his eyes, Kakashi watched a small army of Narutos attacking an un-fazed Uchiha.  
His eyes stared into nothingness as he dodged the punches and kicks without much effort. His hand flew calmly through a set of complicated seals and his chest heaved as he inhaled as deeply as he could.

Eyes wide, Kakashi threw his body over Sakura's, bringing them both down onto the roof.  
In the same second, a wave of hot wind gushed over them in a gigantic blaze of fire. Kakashi's ears listened into the silence,  
picking up the typical sound of dissolving bunshins.

But there was another noise...

"Eat this, you shit-head!"

Looking up, Kakashi's eyes caught sight of the angry face of his ex-student. Beside him a clone exploded in a whisk of smoke,  
leaving its creator with a ball of compressed chakra behind. Again, Naruto aimed his hand at Itachi's chest.

But the other man was gone.

Swivelling around, Naruto nearly bumped into Itachi's chest.  
Like in slow motion, he watched as his opponent lifted his right hand towards his stomach. In the same instant, Naruto brought his hand forward, aiming for Itachi's head, when the pale hand of the Uchiha touched the mesh-shirt covering Naruto's belly.

Kakashi stared in disbelief as Naruto flew backwards into a house wall. The building shook dangerously as a large cloud of dust rose from where he had crashed into the rough structure.  
After long seconds of silence, the five-story house suddenly collapsed completely, burying Naruto underneath tons of debris.

Sakura gasped in shock, her hand clutching onto Kakashi's vest.  
"Naruto..." She whispered in a husky voice, the dust scratching in her already dry throat.

"Sakura, go and get Naruto. I'll keep Itachi in check." Kakashi suddenly exclaimed, forming a hand seal in front of his sharingan. The kunoichi could feel almost immediately the chakra in Kakashi's body travelling up into his eye.

She already knew what he was intending.  
Sakura had, after all, been treating Kakashi because of what he had been able to awaken.

"Mangekyu sharingan!"

Yes, the 'mangekyu sharingan'. The hidden and probably most powerful and terrifying ability the Uchiha clan was known to be capable of.  
The copy-ninja had been training to accomplish this outstanding technique for over three years now and only recently had he been able to activate it.  
Though the ability had come with a very high prize no-one had been aware of.

The Mangekyu caused blindness.

Kakashi had first consulted Tsunade about a year ago, after he had been training with the newly acquired jutsu several weeks.  
He had noticed, that he couldn't see things farther away than twenty meters clearly anymore. Something a ninja couldn't afford.

Tsunade hadn't bothered to examine Kakashi in the first place.  
It had seemed she wasn't particularly interested in the secrets such an eye held in its depths, something that had sounded quite off to Sakura... she only found out later that Tsunade had done it on purpose. And so the Fifth had ordered Sakura to take over Kakashi's case.

Bewildered, she had started to examine her former sensei. And after only a few days, she had already figured out the basic problems lying behind the sharingan and especially the mangekyu.  
The blindness was apparently caused by the chakra. Sakura had explained to Kakashi, that the sudden rush of chakra into the eye was too much. It was basically like a huge flood-wave rushing down the course of a brook. At some point it can't contain the masses of water any more and the water floods the land around the brook.

When one used the mangekyu, the chakra sped to the eye in such quantities, that the delicate channels couldn't possibly contain them for long. The eye can't handle the amount and 'all gates break', so to speak.  
The chakra 'floods' the surrounding tissue and corrodes it slowly. And every usage of the pinwheel eyes caused greater damage.

Sakura had immediately begun treating Kakashi, having fixed the burst channels and healed the damage already done.  
She had also ordered Kakashi to see her every week, so that she could keep track on the progress on his eye.

"I'm impressed, Kakashi"  
The voice of Uchiha Itachi brought her out of her internal musings with a start.

Staring at his blood red eyes, Sakura wondered whether he could actually see any details of his surroundings at all.  
Itachi had, after all, been using the mangekyu for more than six years now and as far as Sakura knew, he had never been treated for symptoms of blindness before.

Making a face, she doubted an Uchiha would ever show any sign of weakness to 'anybody', especially when it concerned the most important thing the family had!

"'ve been working out... you should see my six-pack!" Kakashi taunted mockingly, staring straight into the other sharingan.  
He noticed the slight shift of the black wings in his eyes and prepared himself for the upcoming battle.

----------

Standing on the edge of a roof, the black-haired man watched the three figures with alert eyes.  
His hands clenched slowly into tight fists, knuckles turning ghostly white from the strength.

His jaw muscles tensed and his lids narrowed as he continued to stand unmoving. The red pinwheel eyes caught the slight movement of the silver-haired man on the other roof even before he had executed it.

Still he didn't move, eyes transfixing the skull of the second man with the large in red clouds covered cloak.

For now he would watch. Watch and wait for the right time to move...

----------

"Dear God! You've been hiding in a hole or why are you even paler than before!"

Chuckling humorlessly, Orochimaru watched Tsunade and Jiraya standing on the back of Gamabunta slyly. He didn't seem particularly interested in any abuse the Fifth had been firing down at him for the last few minutes.

"Yo, Jiraya!" The dark voice of the giant toad echoed through the forest, making the ground shake. "I hope for your sake, that ya got a good plan with ya!"

"As always." The white-haired man smirked boyishly, gaining a sigh from the enormous amphibian.  
His gaze wandered across the large gap between his partner and Manda, the purple-grey snake opposite them. Its tongue flickered in and out of the large, flat snout in an irregular pattern. Manda was bleeding minorly where Gamabunta had slammed it down into the ground after having forced the snake king out of the village.

"Orochimaru! I start disliking this reunions! I hope you have some sacrifices prepared for me!" Manda hissed through scaled lips, the slit-eyes staring threateningly up at its 'master.  
"Do not worry... there is a whole country waiting for you."

"If you're that hungry get started already, ya pathetic worm!" Gamabunta roared. He gripped the hilt of his katana more tightly and got onto his hind legs, staring straight at the snake with dangerously gleaming eyes.

"He's right... lets get this done and over with!" the Fifth yelled.  
Snorting, Jiraya watched as Tsunade jumped off the wet skin of Gamabunta. She had already started forming a set of hand seals, when Manda suddenly bolted up into the air, jaws wide open as he aimed for her.

Orochimaru, not intending to get into Manda's way, jumped off the large head and landed in the crown of a tree. He folded his arms across his chest and watched the scene with a smile plastered on his thin lips.

"Idiot...", the female sannin mumbled through clenched jaws, eyes staring angrily at her former teammate.  
Gamabunta was in front of Manda just when he was about to reach Tsunade, who was still preparing her jutsu unimpressed.  
The toad landed a powerful kick on the snake's throat and swung his sword down at Manda's head.

But the snake was faster. It used the momentum to sneak its long body around Gamabunta and wrapped it tightly around his torso. The air came out of the toad's chest in a rush, but he wasn't done yet.  
In fact this was just how he had wanted it!

"Rasengan"  
Speeding down his friend's back, the toad sannin jumped across Manda's body and landed on the large head.  
Without wasting a second thought, he buried his hand in the snout.

Startled from the unforeseen attack, Manda let go of his victim and shook his head vigorously to get rid of the little creature that had dared to hurt 'him'! Too busy trying to make Jiraya get off of him, he didn't pay any attention to the other animal king, until it was too late. Suddenly there were two large four-fingered hands wrapping around his tail.

"What!" Manda watched angrily as Gamabunta started lifting him up into the air. Jiraya jumped off the snake's head before it was too late, landing with a sound thud on the ground below.  
With unnatural strength, Gamabunta threw his opponent into the opposite direction of the city. It crashed into the woods with a deafening noise, trees breaking and large amounts of earth exploding from the impact. The dust that rose from the ground swallowed manda completely, making him invisible.

Eyes narrowed, the snake sannin stared straight at the woman coming right down at him.

Tsunade's hands were glowing faintly blue in the darkness of the night. Her face was set, a grim expression so totally different from her normal un-caring attitude that it looked almost unnatural on her.  
"Pay attention, Orochi!" She yelled angrily as she landed on the branch on which her former comrade was standing on. Not waisting a second, she dashed towards him, bringing up two fingers of her right hand.

She was aiming for his heart.

Orochimaru wasn't stupid.  
He knew better than most other people, that only a slight touch of his dear 'friend' was deadlier than a dozen kunais and shurikens. He was also aware of Tsunade's ability to send chakra through every body part into the opponent, which meant that touching 'her' was also a fatal mistake and so he had to keep his distance from her.

"Too obvious, my friend." He drawled mockingly, jumping back until he hit the rough bark of the tree.  
A smile spread out across his face when he pressed his body against the rough texture of the tree, slowly merging with it until he had vanished completely out of sight.

"Do you think that'll save your ass?" Pressing her hand against the branch, Tsunade sent ripples of chakra through the cells of the trees. Snorting, she jumped off it and landed gracefully on the ground. After mere seconds the tree in front of her exploded into thousand pieces.

Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe..." The voice came from behind her and she swivelled around without thinking, her fist connecting with a tree. It, too, exploded immediately under the strength of the blow.

He was playing with her.  
Dammit, that bastard dared to even think he could have his way with her!

Forcing her anger back into a dark corner of her mind, Tsunade shut out the noises that surrounded her.  
She concentrated only on 'him'. 'His' chakra. 'His' poisonous aura. 'His' pale ass.

Sending extra chakra into her left hand, she dashed to a tree to her right. Lips pursed, she slammed her hand into the rough bork, skin ripping under the force. Tsunade didn't seem to feel the slight stinging pain, a smirk suddenly appearing on her lips instead.

She had him.

Pulling her hand out of the tree, she turned around in a semi-circle.  
Her slender fingers grasped tightly onto the neck of the snake sannin, increasing the pressure nearly to the point of breaking it.

With all the power she possessed, the Fifth slammed the slick man into a nearby tree, listening with much satisfaction to the sound of two or three ribs breaking.  
"Did you really think you could escape this time, Orochimaru?" Tsunade spat out his name in disgust, closing her fingers more tightly around the slender neck.

His snake-like eyes watched her intently. And for a moment, Tsunade thought she had seen something sparkle in them.  
"You have always been an unworthy opponent, Tsunade."

Before she had a chance to answer, there was a low rumbling sound, closely followed by a shudder running through the ground underneath the blond woman's feet.  
Eyes wide in realization, Tsunade let go of Orochimaru's neck and jumped back, when suddenly the earth exploded.

"Tsunade!" She heard Jiraya's voice calling her from somewhere behind her and in the corner of her eye she saw Gamabunta engaging Manda again in a merciless fight.  
But her mind was not with any of them.

He was gone again.  
Tsunade had lost sight of him right after the attack of the monster snake and she could neither see him nor could she detect his chakra signature.

There was a loud silence in her ears as her eyes flickered across the forest irratically.

Her breathing quickened slightly and a sickening feeling spread out through her stomach. She had a very bad feeling. This wasn't like she had been planning it for months! This was so totally wrong, that she couldn't prevent the sudden rush of fear from clouding her mind momentarily.

Tsunade never saw the large tail of Manda swinging towards her.  
It hit her squarely, sending her flying into a large tree. The bork exploded underneath her skin and she rather heard than felt her cheekbone breaking from the impact.

Slowly she slid to the ground, her head hitting the soil with a resounding thud. A darkness she had never encountered before crept up on her, surrounding her as her vision started to blur. Her eyes caught a glimpse of Jiraya running towards her, words flowing from his lips in a steady stream. Behind him, Tsunade could see Gamabunta slicing a sword through the massive body of Manda, blood spurting out of the wound and spilling onto the toads hands.

Before unconsciousness finally claimed her, Tsunade had an overwhelming feeling of sorrow.

Sorrow and regret that 'if' she woke up again, the world wouldn't be the same...

----------

"Maybe I should get a giant mouse-trap!"

Blinking away the blood and sweat, Gai stood up again and straightened with much effort.  
It seemed the shark-man wouldn't die as easily as he had thought.

"With some smelly cheese or do ya favor bacon, 'green beast'?"

Inhaling as deeply as his protesting ribs allowed him to, Gai listened to the ongoing ranting of his opponent with a risen eyebrow.  
Kisame had been making 'jokes' about him for the last ten minutes and even though Gai didn't allow any annoyance to be displayed,  
this was slowly but surely freaking him out.

He had been training with Kakashi for many years now and was pretty much used to any kind of odd rambling. But he had never seen anybody who had 'that' many abuses about animals in store and was so insistent on making fun of his self-given nickname.

"It seems Konoha has a heart for run-away pets or are you just some part of a freak show!" Chuckling dangerously, Kisame swung his Samehade over his shoulder and stared straight into the black orbs of Gai. Until now, he hadn't been able to bait him into losing it, but he was sure it wouldn't take much longer, judging by the way the 'green beast' had his lips pursed tightly into a thin line.

The only person that had never showed any form of acknowledgment and always looked indifferent to the outer eye was Uchiha Itachi, and to be frank, Kisame wasn't stupid enought to try that method on the younger man twice. Kisame had learned his lesson the painful way.

The malicious grin widened on Kisame's face when he found the spot where Gai had been standing a heartbeat ago deserted.  
The game was on.

Without any obvious effort, he gripped the sword more tightly and lifted it high into the air and closed his eyes.  
When they snapped open again he brought the weapon with the shark-like skin down to his left. Kisame didn't see anything, but he heard a faint hissing sound that moved around him in blinding speed.

Suddenly there was a punch to his stomach, closely followed by a few powerful kicks to his unprotected back and then chest, forcing him backwards. Kisame tried to block most of them, but they showered down on him in a constant rain and he had a hard time dodging them all.

Grunting, he ducked from the next blow that was aimed at his head and rolled to the right, using Samehade to block another kick to his cheek and temple. In the same second a boot landed right on his sternum, sending a jolt of unpleasent pain through his torso and knocking the air out of his lungs.

This was getting more and more interesting, he thought as he jumped off the ground and rubbed the bleeding laceration where Gai had landed the hit.  
"Samehade is hungry..." He muttered to no-one in particular, but was nonetheless pleased to find Gai suddenly re-appearing in a somewhat blurred swirl of limbs and green.

With a sly grin, Kisame noted the large wound on Gai's right shoulder. It was bleeding severely, which explained the hissing sound from earlier and the sprankled fresh blood all around Kisame.  
"You look tired... maybe we should end it here." His small yellowish eyes widened with excitement... if one wanted to call the feeling of blood-hunger that boiled deeply within his skull 'excitement'.

"You are obviously not familiar with the youthful power Konoha's ninjas possess. I will not 'give up' or do anything likewise,  
for I shall bring you down for your insolent words!"

The laughter that errupted from Kisame's throat wasn't exactly the reaction Gai had been anticipating.  
"Bring it on, 'green beast of Konoha'!" He spat the last part with such scornfulness Gai had rarely heard.

----------

'It's too silent'  
Looking up, Lee glimpsed parts of the nightly sky flittering through the dense crowns of the trees. Ever since Sakura had practically ordered them to leave the village, they had been rushing through the forest as fast as they could.

A slight movement against his chest caught the young man's attention and his gaze immediately shifted to the now squirming bundle in his arms. "Shh..." Pressing it more tightly against his body, Lee started stroking the newborn through the fabric of his chuunin-vest.  
He had wrapped Neji's son securely into it shortly after they had reached the first trees. It wasn't much to keep the cold night air from reaching the slightly damp skin of the baby, but it was all Lee had to offer beside the blanket it had been covered with right after its birth.

"Neji..." Startled, Lee watched as Neji's eyes stared down at the pale woman in his arms in alert.  
Tenten had been fading in and out of consciousness constantly, but this was the first time that she had uttered a word.

"It's ok." The white-eyed jounin mumbled, tightening his grip around her body as he jumped off a tree.  
"My... baby..."

Looking up from his fiancee, Neji locked his eyes with Lee's.  
"He's here... and he's in good hands." He whispered and Shikamaru wondered whether it was because of the shadows looming in the darkness, possible enemies, or because he feared his voice would falter with emotions so unlike the stoic Hyuuga.

"Thank you." Was the last thing the three men heard from Tenten before she slipped back into darkness.

For a very long time, the forest was eerily silent. Not one animal could be detected crawling through the foliage at the feet of the enormous trees.

Shikamaru turned his head uneasily, a strange feeling clawing at the edge of his mind. And normally he could trust his feeling pretty much, which meant they were running headlong into trouble. Trouble they had no time for.

It was then that the strategy specialist heard a hiss from his right.  
"Thirty advancing from behind... three hundred and twenty at twelve o'clock." Neji's voice was low and dark, a slight edge of anger and maybe fear barely audible.

"There's no way we could fight them all." Shikamaru said in a defeated tone of voice, turning around slightly in mid-jump as he heard the distant sound of a exploding tree. "They wanna spook us... seem to be pretty confident about their victory."

"We should find a place where we stand a better chance." Lee offered. He was clearly concerned, his large eyes constantly traveling between Tenten and the silent baby in his arms. Inhaling deeply, he vowed that he would potect his friend and the child or die in the fight!

"Alright... lets get down onto solid ground then."

The words had barely left Shikamaru's lips, when the three shinobis descended down to the dark ground.  
The dry leaves of the giant trees rustled under their feet, sounding loud in the almost completely silent woods. As the trio walked carefully along a small path, undoubtfully made by animals on their quest through the forest, they felt the all too familiar change of atmosphere... a feeling that could only be described as shift in air pressure. It was of course the chakra of the adavncing groups of ninjas that caused this and made Lee's heartbeat quicken in anticipation.

"Lay them down here." Neji gestured with his chin towards an old tree trunk. A large hole gaped at its side like the mouth of a monster hiding in the darkness of the night. It was the best thing they could find resembling a hiding place in such a short span of time.

Carefully, Neji kneeled down and placed Tenten against the far back of the 'cave'. A hand appeared in his line of view and with some surprise he realized it was Shika's, holding his chuunin vest out to him. The Hyuuga took it with a slight nod and placed it under Tenten's neck for support.

"Here..." Lee's voice was gentle when he gave Neji the small bundle he had been carrying for over an hour now.

A harsh breath escaped Neji's throat as he took it with trembling hands. It was the first time he would hold his son and he was a bit anxious.

"Hey." He whispered gently down at the fast asleep newborn, marveling at how peaceful this little creature looked. Oblivious to the dramatic circumstances he had been forced into this cold, dark world. The small lips of his son parted slightly and he gurgled in his sleep. His tiny hands were curled into fists and with a smile Neji thought he almost looked like he wanted to take on the fight himself.

Slowly he lay the bundle down beside his fiancee and the mother of his wonderful son.

When he got back up, Shikamaru could see the slightest emotion displayed in the ghostly white eyes of the other man. It was a mixture of fear, anger and determination.  
They were going to fight to their very deaths, Shikmaru was sure of it.

"They're almost here." Neji suddenly said, walking away from the trunk towards a tree some fifty meters ahead of them. "The smaller group will arrive about a minute before the second larger one... I know I am asking too much here, but I won't stand a chance against them alone..."

He was cut off by a chuckle of the man with the black ponytale. His laugh didn't contain any humor.  
"Cut the crap, Neji... I'll tell everybody what a whimp you are, if you don't stop this... it's already troublesome enough."

"He's right. Gai sensei has taught us to be strong even in the face of death." Lee said, his eyes smiling proudly into the distance. He had already readied himself, having taken on his famous fighter's stance, one hand behind his back and the other one pointing towards the advancing enemies.

A light breeze played with the foliage on the ground, encircling them in its cool embrace.

The first figures appeared on a tree ahead of them and Lee's features hardened, eyes narrowed as he waited for the unevitable to come. He would fight them with all he had. And if he had too he would play his final trump card... the Lotus blooms twice in Konoha, he himself had told Sakura so many years ago and now was the time to protect something precious. Precious not only to him.

The breeze picked up slightly and Lee tensed visibly, ready to dash towards them in a heartbeat.  
Just before the first sound nin landed in front of the three friends, Lee's eyes caught sight of a small cloud of sand crawling eerily across the ground towards them...

--------------------

FINIS!  
Another part finished! Hooray! Wanna read more? Go and drop some lines in form of a review... I accept spears, but please without fire!

This is what 'really' happened when Kakashi told Itachi about his six-pack:

Out of the nowhere a hysterically screaming, arms flailing and obviously totally nuts young woman appears on the roof beside Kakashi.  
"SIX-PACK!"

Eyes wide, Kakashi tries to run away, but the wacko girl flings her arms around his mid-section and hugs him so tightly that he goes all blue. She uses his sudden lack of resitance to pull up his shirt, sees Kakashi's well-trained, well-formed six-pack and faints...

o.o''


	4. Chapter 4

Author's notes: 

So here goes another round of excuses of the pathetic kind... Uni. That's all I have to say... and maybe hibernation.  
This chapter is dedicated to Maren. And I want to say that I'm a better, greater and much more beautiful Kakashi-obsessed-freak than Kathrin! KAKASHIIIII!

I wanna thank everybody for reviewing end encouraging me to continue! Hugs for everybody! I love ya all... breaks down and cries

As always, flames, praise and constructive criticism (not necessarily in that order) are welcome. I'll also accept hugs,  
cookies and food for my pets.

Now on with the show!

--------------------

"Mahahahaha!"

Eyes half closed, Gai looked up from the small puddle of dark liquid he was kneeling above. He felt another drop sliding down his hand where he was pressing it hard against the gaping wound on his chest.

It was bleeding profoundly, and already the first symptoms of blood loss had made themselves obvious.  
Gai was feeling lightheaded and the fast beating of his heart was loud in the silence of his ears. His breathing was shallow, his lungs seemingly refusing to draw in air properly with the searing pain shooting through his shoulder and chest with every attempt to heave.

A deep fatigue spread throughout his body, clawing at the edge of his foggy mind. He had the nearly overwhelming desire to lie down and sleep.

But again he got up.

"Ya sure you don't want to give up?" The mocking voice of Kisame echoed across the small space between him and Maito Gai.  
"You don't seem to be on your high... well, to be frank, you've already passed it years ago!" A loud roar of laughter errupted from the shark-man's throat, but Gai was too tired to care about replying anymore.

With an effort he straightened. A trembling arm lifted a bloody hand, beckoning his opponent that he was ready again.

A wave of dizziness passed momentarily through his stomach and he feared he would throw up, but after another calming breath the haze lifted partly from around him. His legs suddenly started shaking almost violently and for a second Gai thought, that maybe it hadn't been such a good idea after all to stand up already.

Before he had a chance to follow the train of thoughts further, his eyes caught sight of the glimmering side of the shark-skin katana Samehade piercing the air as it was thrust towards him.

Flipping backwards into a handstand, Gai swung his boot around to dodge the sword. It connected with an impact that nearly made him lose his balance on the slippery surface of the roof. With a grunt he dug his fingers into the tiles and pushed back against the weapon.

Suddenly there was a feeling of utter exhaustion running through his body. He felt like the chakra was draining from his skin... as if somebody was sucking out his very energy.

"I see you still have some power left, green beast... lucky my Samehade never ceases to lose its appetite for chakra!"

So he actually 'was' losing his chakra.  
'What can I do...', Gai thought with a twinge of desperation. Opening all eight gates was not an option anymore. He had lost too much energy to even consider attempting it.

Jumping back onto his feet, the black-haired shinobi watched the nuke-nin carefully.  
It was obvious that Gai wasn't the only one exhausted in this 'game', as Kisame preferred to call their fight, though he was pretty sure that the Akatsuki member was in much better condition than he was. The chances of him winning against Kisame were thin...

Gai had to end it now. There wasn't much of a choice.

Staring squarely at Kisame, Gai clenched his hands into tight fists, ignoring again the searing white pain from the deep wounds.  
He forced himself to calm down his breathing and heartbeat, concentrating on focusing chakra at four parts of his body, the first four spots of his inner chakra coils.

His breathing got deeper as he drew more chakra to this gates and with a final sharp exhalation he forcibly released the brain's restraints that controlled the chakra flow.  
Gai immediately felt masses of energy spurting through his exhausted body, his muscles tensing in anticipation as he prepared for his next move.

Gai was gone before Kisame could do anything.  
Where the black-haired ninja had been standing was only a puddle of dark blood left, glistening in the fading moonlight.

Suddenly there was a slight shift in air pressure. Kisame didn't even get the chance to draw in a last breath before Gai attacked.

A massive blow to his chest sent the large man flying through the air, forcing the oxygen out of his burning lungs in a rush.  
But he never hit the opposite side of the roof. Instead he felt two hands gripping the front of his cloak tightly, stopping him dead in mid-air.

What followed was a fire of kicks to his back and head, breaking his shoulder blade and some ribs like the bones were matches.  
As he waited for the next blow, his jaws clenched in anticipation of the pain, Kisame didn't see Gai's next move coming.

The hands that held him in arm's reach suddenly let go and Kisame was pushed into the roof with a hard kick to his stomach. Blood filled his mouth, the taste of iron all too familiar to the shark man. For a fraction of a second his vision blackened, white dots dancing through his view. He never saw the fist flying towards his face...

Gai watched as his enemy smashed backwards into the chimney, stones flying into all directions. He was breathing heavily, arms and legs trembling from the effort. He had only succeeded in opening four gates fully and even that action had used up most of his energy reserves to accomplish. Gai wasn't sure for how much longer he'd be able to keep that speed up.

He didn't have time to pursue it further.  
He found the spot where Kisame had landed deserted. The only sign that the shark man had been there was a large hole gaping open in the structure.

Right then a greyish hand shot out through the roof underneath Gai, grabbing blindly for his ankle. Fortunately Gai was faster and he moved to the right before the hand got a chance of getting a hold on him. Out of the corner of his eyes, Gai could see Kisame crawling out of the newly made hole with a face set in anger and hatred.

With muscles tensed to the point of snapping, Gai dashed forward, aiming his fist at where the Akatsuki was crouching on the shattered roof.

Breathing heavily, Kisame jumped high into the air, watching as the tiles exploded where he had been standing some seconds ago.  
But he still couldn't see him. The Konoha shinobi was too fast for the bare eye to catch. He had to make him slow down enough for him to be able to strike. He had played long enough with the beast, the time had come finish 'it'!

With a thud Kisame landed on the roof. In the same heartbeat he swung around his Samehade, not actually aiming for anything, or better anyone. He just wanted to clear the area around him to gain enough time to prepare his jutsu.

For a fraction of a second, he saw a green swirl running past him, avoiding his sword and changing directions abruptly.  
This was his chance!

Kisame let go of his precious sword and instantly his hands flew through a set of seals, the whole act not taking longer than the second his weapon needed to hit the roof.  
Almost immediately after he had clasped his hands together into the final seal, the whole house started shaking, the broken tiles clattering and falling from the building into the streets.

With a wide malicious grin, Kisame watched as the roof exploded at several places, blades of water piercing the construction and flying through the night in high speed. The sound of breaking wood and tiles filled the air as more watery weapons appeared.

At first they swivelled through the air seemingly uncoordinately, but after some moments they had zoomed in on a fast moving figure, chasing it... hunting it down, like a pack of bloodhounds their prey.

Gai sped across the rooftops as fast as his burning legs allowed him, but he could already hardly dodge the water blades attacking him from all sides. Just when another weapon struck from the left, Gai slipped on the wet roof and crashed into the tiles, the sharp edges cutting his already bloody skin.

He flipped onto his back and was just about to get back up, when a water blade shot down on him. It pierced his shoulder and pinned him effectively against the roof.  
Blood seeped out of the wound, spilling onto the tiles and dyeing the water of the blade crimson. Gai hissed as the pain shot through his chest, making it impossible to fill his lungs with much needed air.

Eyes tightly shut, he listened as Kisame landed beside him on the roof. A loud splashing indicated him that the shark-man had lifted the jutsu, the blades dissolving in small waterfalls that cascaded down the slightly beveled roof.

"Seems the beast is trapped... as much as I enjoyed this little hunt, my time is precious." Kisame chuckled, blood dripping out of the corner of his mouth. He had picked up Samehade again and lifted it high into the air.

Gai stared at the sword with glazed eyes.  
This was it. He was at the point where he couldn't even force his arms to shield his body from the arriving strike.

He watched the weapon slice through the air and his brain started working in overdrive.  
Would Akatsuki get Naruto? Did Lee find a medic for Tenten? Would Kakashi visit his grave just like he did with Obito's?  
Would Lee forgive him for breaking his promise to him?

He allowed a bitter smile to appear on his split lips, eyes slowly closing as he shut out Kisame's laughter.

A fraction of a second before his eyes closed completely and the sword hit his body, Gai glimpsed a flash of green and black crashing against Kisame and sending him reeling into a the wall of a house...

----------

'Dammit! Dammit!'

Hot tears prickled at the back of Sakura's eyes as another large boulder slid down the mountain of debris just as she had succeeded in rolling away enough to glimpse a small space underneath the remains of the collapsed house. She had to work faster!  
God only knew how much time Naruto had before he got crushed under tons of rubble... if he wasn't already dead.

Shaking her head in denial, Sakura picked up another heavy piece of wall and tossed it to the side. Her arms were already trembling to the point where she could barely lift them, but she refused to listen to the screams of her totally exhausted body.

Her broken wrist was already numb from the pain, but she could still feel the sickening grinding of the fractured bones as she moved her hand. She would need a large amount of chakra to get her bones back together, especially now that she was messing them up with her effort of moving tons of debris. But she forced herself to ignore it. The pain, the sound, the possibility of never being able to use her hand ever again...

Sakura was already preparing herself for the upcoming healing session, gathering as much chakra as she could spare from every body part. Chakra she would soon need for both Naruto and Kakashi... she just hoped that it was enough when the time had come.

With a grunt she smashed another boulder that was almost as tall as herself, the stone crumbling under the strength of the blow.  
"Just hold on... hold on..." She mumbled under her breath, sweat trickling down her face and stinging in her watery eyes.

Suddenly she heard a cough from somewhere inside the pile of rubble that had been a four-storey building some minutes ago.  
"Narutoo!" With newly found energy, she started digging almost frantically into the debris, the pain in her torn fingers nothing but a distant tingling of nerves.

He was alive. Naruto was alive!  
The thought alone made her roll away stones and boulders and lift beams the size of a tree.

"Naruto! I'm almost there!" She was panting heavily, eyes darting through the hole she had just uncovered. The dust that had risen from within was so thick she could barely see the hand before her eyes, her throat itching and making her cough a few times. "Naruto, gimme a sign! Where are you?"

She was regarded with an ominous silence that droned in her ears.  
Suddenly there was a low moan coming from her right. Sakura immediately dashed to where she thought it had originated from and took hold of another beam. As she heaved it up from the ground, her eyes saw something faintly orange moving faintly underneath it.

Looking around, Sakura tried to find a way to discard the beam, but when she noticed that a large part of the building was resting on it, she realized that throwing it away meant burying Naruto underneath the crumbled building and possibly herself along.

"Naruto... please, you have to help me!" Her arms were burning from the strain. "Try to crawl outta there... I can't hold it much longer..." She hissed through gritted teeth, forcing the beam up another few inches.

In the corner of her eyes, Sakura saw him moving slowly into her direction, a pained grunt reaching her ears as he reached her legs. Sakura could see from where she was standing above him, that he was dragging his leg behind and that his right shoulder was dislocated. She watched him as he finally emerged fully from under the beam and tried to get up into a standing position,  
crawling more than walking into the open street behind her.

As soon as she thought he had reached safety, Sakura let go of the heavy beam and jumped back just when the rest of the building broke down completely, a cloud of grayish dust rising from the mountain of debris and engulfing her.

"Naruto?" Carefully, she walked up to him where he had collapsed on his back in a bloody and dirty heap. Crouching down beside him, Sakura gingerly touched a large laceration on his cheek. Blue chakra seeped out of the tips of her fingers as her hand travelled down his neck towards his shoulder and down his arm.

With a swift movement she pulled Naruto's arm towards her, waiting until she heard the sickening 'plop' of his bone sliding back into the joint of his shoulder. Immediately her hand covered it and the blue chakra entered the purple skin, healing the damage and suppressing the immense pain.

Sweat trickled down her temples from the exhausting process and her breathing got heavier the longer she needed.  
"Sakura..." Staring at the bloodied face of her best friend, Sakura fought the urge to cry. She watched as his eyes fluttered open, bright, hazy blue being revealed.

Sakura's lips began to quiver when the laceration on Naruto's cheek started sizzling, slowly disappearing as red chakra emitted from his body.  
"You shouldn't have done this! You're such an idiot!" She said angrily, taking the young man by surprise.

Sakura felt tears sliding down her cheeks and falling from her chin onto Naruto's chest.  
She was angry at him. For having risked his life 'again' for her. For having run headlong into the enemy without thinking because of her. For having been hurt badly and for having almost ended dead.

With some shock, she felt a warm hand cupping her cheek carefully.  
As she blinked away the tears, she found Naruto smiling warmly up at her, eyes sparkling. It almost made her lose it completely.  
Why in hell was he so, so... Narutoish?

"Maybe if you stop worrying, I'll stop being an idiot..." He retorted, grinning cheekily up at her and making her lips tremble even more.

Sakura felt his hand leaving her cheek and found him pushing his torso up from the dirty ground into a sitting position.  
He regarded her with a dirt stained face, looking like he had had a fight in a puddle of mud.

The silence between them was broken by a scream.

A bone-chilling scream that seemed to penetrate her to the core. A noise so unhuman, that Sakura's gut tightened as she listened to the echo bouncing off the walls of the remaining houses.

"Kakashi..."

Right then she saw a form staggering to the edge of the building she had been standing on some minutes ago. The figure stumbled backwards, clutching its head in both hands. And then he was falling like a rag-doll into the abyss.

Eyes wide in horror, Sakura dashed towards the house wall. Focusing chakra into the soles of her feet, she jumped off the wall up to where the body was falling towards her. She caught him in mid-air, her arms winding around his torso and hefting him over her shoulder as she descended towards the ground once again.

Landing with a heavy thud, Sakura got up with a grunt and moved swiftly to where she had left Naruto behind.  
To her surprise she found him already standing there, hands clenched into tight fists as he waited for her return. Sakura noticed immediately that he was able to use his leg again, probably the work of the kyuubi.

"Kakashi!" Naruto asked concerned, running up towards Sakura and helping her lay down the unconscious body of their former sensei. He could see his eyes moving erratically underneath closed lids, looking like he was caught in a nightmare. His face was ashen and Naruto could see the jaw muscles clench and unclench underneath the smooth fabric of the black mask.

Sakura's hand caressed the pale skin of Kakashi's cheekbone gently, asking herself, what powerful and horrid thing Itachi must have done to make such an outstanding ninja fall into such a comatose state of shock.  
At the same time she prayed, that she would never have to find out...

"What happened?" Naruto asked suddenly, gaining her attention.  
"It's the genjutsu of the Mangekyou..." Sakura mumbled almost to herself, her hands already busily preparing a healing jutsu.

Naruto exhaled sharply and almost immediately Sakura felt a tingling sensation crawl across her skin. When she looked up she found Naruto crouching beside her, red chakra engulfing him in an eery glow that gave her the creeps. His fingernails had grown into long claws and his bared teeth looked more like those of a fox than a human being. It was then that she heard a deep guttural snarling sound.

Not able to prevent the shiver from running down her spine at the sight of the 'kyuubyfied' Naruto, Sakura noticed that he was no longer staring at Kakashi. She followed his gaze and found an unmoving figure standing atop the roof Kakashi had fallen off, looking calmly down at them.

Sakura drew in a shaking breath, doubling her effort of healing Kakashi to the point where he was at least responsive, when suddenly the figure disappeared from the roof, just to re-appear in a blur right in front of them. Itachi's stoic figure remained standing some four meters away.

But to Sakura it seemed he was no longer focused on them...

It was then, that she noticed a slight change in atmosphere... a new chakra pattern had appeared. A pattern, Sakura knew better than any other.  
With eyes wide in realization, her gaze shifted from Itachi to Naruto and then back to the eldest Uchiha. The ominous, powerful chakra was slowly but steadily increasing in intensity and Sakura wondered why he wasn't trying to conceal it? Why wasn't he trying to hide his presence?

Out of the corner of her eyes, the pink-haired kunoichi found a black form emerging out of the shadows of the streets. She couldn't prevent the surprised gasp from escaping her lips.

Something in Itachi's eyes changed then.  
"Long time no see, little brother."

----------

'Damn, that asssshooole'  
Grunting, Jiraya grabbed the tongue that darted towards him from behind and pulled hard. Turning around in a semi-circle he suddenly let go of the organ and watched with dark eyes as Orochimaru landed silently in front of a tree.

The toad-sannin was standing, shoulders square and hands clenched into fists, between the unconscious Tsunade and the smirking ex-Konoha shinobi.

The smile on Orochimaru's lips widened as the tongue disappeared again in his throat.  
"As expected from the Hokage. Only a weak country would chose a weak kunoichi as leader." His chuckle didn't contain any humor. "Tsunade has always been an unworthy person, both as comrade and as opponent."

Snorting, Jiraya crossed his arms in front of his chest, glancing sideways at the prone figure of his dear friend and secret love. "Ya know, Orochi... she's always had a soft spot for your pale ass. As a medic, Tsunade has always had the urge to protect the ill. Physically or mentally. You just happen to be one of the latter."

"Kukukuku." The snake-sannin watched as the bemused expression on Jiraya's face vanished within a second.  
"Now, now, my dear 'friend'. No reason to get hostile."

"I'll let you know when I get 'hostile'." Jiraya said angrily, taking a step forward.

He was in a situation he had rather not been forced into in the first place.  
Standing in front of his former comrade, the number one nuke-nin of Konoha and worst S-class criminal known in the bingo-book,  
Jiraya had only one option left. Fight to death.

Without Tsunade and her well-developed jutsu, that would have sealed away Orochimaru's ass into a nice portable scroll, and without the likewise smart plan to capture said ass, the toad-sannin would have to improvise. Not that he had ever had a problem making up some plan to fish himself out of some of the stickier situations (he was an older version of Naruto reagrding that one), but he would have been more comfortable with an angry, roused Tsunade with a hook that made every grown-up man wince just thinking about.

He would have to finish him in some good moves. Attacks that would bring Orochimaru out of his hole.  
But with that snake-head being all cool and collected it would be hard to get him into the defence. Maybe he should play dirty first...

"I can't see that lil creep of an ass-kisser ya always keep around. What was the name of your lapdog?" He asked with a mocking smirk.

"Kabuto is unfortunately dead." Jiraya listened with some satisfaction as he noticed the slight tinge of anger in Orochimaru's voice.

"Oh yeah, remember hearing something 'bout him getting killed by that Uchiha brat, right?" Noticing a shadow fall over his opponent's face, Jiraya continued, "Weren't you supposed to get his body in something about two months, huh? Personal nurse worm-fodder,  
a run-away second-hand-body and death slowly creeping up on ya. ... How'd ya feel 'ole buddy'?"

A malicious grin appeared on the pale features of the snake-sannin and Jiraya steeled himself for the upcoming attack.

He didn't have to wait long.  
With blinding speed, Orochimaru formed a hand-seal and almost instantly the ground underneath Jiraya's feet broke up, uncountable snakes shooting out of the soil, large fangs twinkling in the light of the disappearing moon. He jumped high into the air, his eyes glancing back to where Orochimaru had been standing a second ago.

He felt a barely perceptible shift of air-pressure from below and formed immediately a seal of his own.  
Right when a long katana appeared out of the nowhere, aiming for his stomach, his white hair grew into a tight armor, blocking the deadly weapon just in time.

Kicking the blade away, he stared into the dangerously glistening eyes of his opponent. He was already busy performing another set of seals and inhaled deeply...

A large wall of fire hit Orochimaru, the white skin turning black and sizzling under the heat.  
The bunshin dissolved with a 'ploff', leaving behind burned trees and from the heat flickering air.

Jiraya landed on a large branch, eyes roaming over the forest and searching for a sign of Orochimaru. When he looked up, he suddenly stared at the swinging tail of Manda as he dashed deeper into the woods, Gamabunta hot on his trail. A second before the tail crushed the row of trees, Jiraya saved himself by jumping to where Tsunade was lying on her belly.

He landed with a thud some meters away from her body, head turning into all directions as he expected his ex-teammate to attack any moment.  
Without warning, a shadow appeared from behind him and Jiraya jumped out of the sword's range before it could decapitate him.  
The white-haired man turned in mid-air, a perfect ball of compressed chakra in one hand. He thrust it straight at the other man,  
feeling hot blood splattering onto his arm as he pierced the chest... only to find the body slowly turning into a oozy mass of mud that slowly dripped down his arm.

Eyes wide, Jiraya swivelled around.

In mid-turn he saw a short glinting of metall, but he never got the time to stop his moving body.  
In the fraction of a second the sword needed to impale his body, he realized his mistake as he stared into the large, maniacal orbs of Orochimaru, mouth wide open as the silver katana emerged further from deep within his throat.

They landed with a thud in front of the tree Tsunade had been smashed against and Orochimaru stepped forward, forcing the sword some additional centimeters through Jirayas body.

The Konoha shinobi coughed up some crimson liquid, the blood splattering onto Orochimaru's face. It seemed he was oblivious to it.  
The smile broadened and with a chuckle, he pulled out the last part of the sword from his throat, saliva dripping from it. He took the hilt in one fluid motion and pushed it even further into the bloody chest of Jiraya.

With a grunt, the sannin backed off some inches, his back bumping into the tree behind him.  
"You should have given up many years ago, Jiraya, my old friend. We both knew you would never be able to live up to the high expectations of our 'sensei'!" Orochimaru spat out the last part.

"Keh..." Blood was dripping out of the corners of Jiraya's mouth when he drew in air to answer. His face was a mask of indifference.  
Not the slightest sign of pain was visible. 'A shinobi should never show any sign of emotions or weakness', Sarutobi had told them on their first mission after Jiraya had received some hard punches from Tsunade for beeping.

"Ya know, Orochi... maybe Tsunade was right about snakes..." He inhaled again and watched with glassy eyes as the man with the long black hair stepped back half a meter, arms crossed in front of his chest as he watched with amused eyes.  
"She told me once, that one can drive them away and pull their teeth. Their offspring will come back and bite you instead.  
We drove ya off, Orochi, and made your arms unusable, but you returned and showed your ugly face yet again."

He drew in a shaking breath, a wet gurgle accompanying his futile attempt.  
"She ended her remark with a conclusion... 'Only headless snakes don't bite'."

Eyes narrowed, Orochimaru regarded Jiraya with a wary look. The toad-sannin looked like he would collapse any second now, when suddenly a small movement of his hands caught the black-haired man's attention.

Jaws clenched, his head jerked around to find the forest disappearing, being replaced by something that looked like the intestines of an animal the size of a small house. Breathing quickening, he tried to step forward, but found his legs stuck in the sticky tissue up to his thighs already.

He couldn't move.

Suddenly six hands gripped Orochimaru's arms and torso in an iron hold, making him completely immobile.  
Eyes filled with anger and blunt hatred stared at Jiraya in disbelieve. "Die already!"

A soft chuckle escaped Jiraya's bloody lips as he straightened with much effort, a jolt of agonizing pain running through his body with every move. Breathing was nearly impossible, but he knew he had to finish it as long as he had the smallest bit of chakra left in his system.

With one swift movement, Jiraya pulled out the long sword from his torso. Tsunade's words came to his mind unforbidden. 'Ya know, that this is gonna end in hell for us?'.

"She was right..."

Wide eyes stared at the glinting blade of his own katana as it pierced the air on its way downwards to his neck. Orochimaru felt a small sting as the blade touched his skin, like paper cutting into a finger. But there was no pain... just a blinding white light that spread out through his vision, engulfing everything around him and the dull eyes of Jiraya staring tiredly down at him...

----------

Sakura's eyes flickered back and forth between the two tall man, panic and fear clearly visible in the bright green orbs. Her heart was beating frantically in her chest, the constant 'thud' reverberating in her ears as the heavy silence surrounding her threatened to become unbearable.

Uchiha Itachi was still facing them, but his gaze was unfocused as he concentrated on the second man behind him.  
In the semi-darkness of the breaking dawn, Sasuke's eyes glared bloody red at his older brother's back.

Her breath came out in small misty clouds and Sakura had to strain her eyes at the two opponents as her vision blurred from the lack of sleep and chakra.  
She knew that Kakashi, Naruto and herself were currently on very dangerous territory, the bomb, they were sitting on, about to explode any second now.

Suddenly the body in her arms shifted slightly, drawing the kunoichi's attention at once from the scene in front of her.  
Kakashi's breathing was labored, eyes moving rapidly under tightly closed lids as he was stuck in some kind of horrid nightmare, induced by Itachi's Mangekyou sharingan.

A low moan escaped his hidden lips and Sakura had to supress the temptation to whisper soothing words.  
'What could I say? Everything is gonna be alright?'

Kakashi was very low on chakra, the long hours of fighting and the usage of the Mangekyou having taken their toll on him.  
Sakura was aware that her own level of energy was practically nonexistent, especially after the attempt to heal as much of the damage done to her former sensei as possible.

The problem was, that mental wounds were much more difficult to cure than physical ones and she would need many sessions to get him back to normal. Or as normal as one could be after having had such an experience.

A slight noise behind her reminded Sakura that the last member of newly assembled team 7 was still present and by the way his chakra had already changed into that of a demon, she knew he was ready to clash.

She would have to get his attention. A berserk Naruto was definitely on the list of things she had to prevent from happening!  
Especially with 'two' out-of-control Uchihas, one of them ready to kill anything that dared come in his way of avenging his family within a fifty mile radius and the other one ready to offer his help to extract the kyuubi out of Naruto whenever said young man would show any kind of weakness.

And in his kyuubi-induced state of mind, Naruto was one big weakness. Not thinking, not considering, doing nothing but getting headlong into trouble.  
Sakura 'had' to get him back under control...

"Naruto"  
The cold, controlled voice of the man she had vowed to love and protect, broke through her thoughts like a thunder.  
When she looked back at him, Sakura found Sasuke hadn't moved an inch but his sharingan eyes had shifted from Itachi to Naruto and her.

A shiver ran down her spine as their gazes locked for the first time ever since he had shown up.  
'This is my fight. Stay out of this or you'll regret it.', his eyes seemed to say and Sakura understood the unspoken message.

"Naruto...", she whispered, "help me with Kakashi"  
There wasn't an immedaite reaction and Sakura could practically feel the deep frown on his bewildered face as he stared at the back of her head.

"We have to get him somewhere else. He's in critical condition"  
"But"  
"No 'but'." Sakura interrupted Naruto mid-sentence, her fingers digging into the vest of Kakashi. "This is not your fight." She finished in almost a whisper.

Naruto didn't reply.  
He merely stared at the two Uchiha brothers, his breathing heavy from anger and slitted eyes glaring menacingly at them. As if this action alone could get Itachi killed and Sasuke back to normal.

But no such thing happened.

Walking up to Sakura's side, he kneeled down beside her and helped her carefully lift Kakashi's trembling body from the hard ground. His long nails ripped apart the side of his sensei's pants-leg, but he just found his anger growing when he felt the cold eyes of Itachi following their every move.

"Who told you to go." The Akatsuki member suddenly spoke in a low tone of voice, making Sakura and Naruto halt dead in the middle of the gloomy street.  
"Or do you really think, I'll waste my precious time with scum like my little brother?"

Sakura's ears caught the faint noise of a kunai flying through the air, sounding like wind whistling through a field of rice.  
Reflexes trained to perfection ever since genin days, she ducked just in time to see two small weapons whizzing past her head and imbedding themselves in a nearby house.

"You fucking ass!" Naruto roared, shoving Kakashi's still form into Sakura's weak arms and starting off into the direction of the older Uchiha, when suddenly a dark shadow appeared right in front of him, a hand on his angrily heaving chest keeping him standing in the middle of the poorly illuminated street.

Naruto's fox-like eyes stared at Sasuke's red ones.

After long seconds of silence, a sad smile graced the raven-haired man's lips.  
"You have grown...", he told Naruto in a low voice. "Both of you... almost beyond recognition..."

Growling, Naruto grabbed him by his collar and drew him close to his face.

"Damn son of a bitch! Stop talking like nothing has happened!" Naruto exploded like a bomb, his chest heaving heavily from the anger that was boiling deep within him.  
"Did you think we'd wait for you, doing nothing? We worked our asses bloody! Fought to become stronger and stronger just to show you lil bastard what you could have achieved here! So stop talking like you havn't caused all this shit, you... you..."

A sob from behind him could be heard above Naruto's panting as he searched for words.

"Naruto." Sasuke began, taking hold of the fist clenched around his shirt. He pried it away slowly.  
"I'm not here to defend my actions... but I believe, I've finally found 'my' way of the ninja." With a rueful smile, Sasuke turned around, facing Itachi almost looking indifferent, but Naruto knew him enough to notice the small shift of his stance and the way his fingers curled slowly into a fist.

"I'll see ya later, dobe."

Chuckling humorlessly, Naruto averted his gaze, staring at the ground.  
"I'll hold you to it, idiot!"

--------------------

FINIS?

So here is another chapter that forces me into a very sticky situation: What the heck will happen next! Ideas are welcome.  
You can send them via doves, dolphines and snakes... or other lovely creatures you just found out exist! n.n

Assistant's notes: (my sis XD )  
Wohooo! Kabuto's dead! But that you humiliated Orochi-sensei-sama-kun was soooooooo unfair! pout Rot in hell Kabuto-teme!

Author's notes II:  
o.O'' uhmm... suman, suman... but (Yeah, the ominous 'but'), just for the records: I even made Kakashi look like a wimp, to get the story into the right direction! And I love/adore/love Kakashi! An his overly sexy six-pack!  
So stop complaining about Orochi! Orochi here, Orochi there... blablabla! What about 'my' feelings?

Assistant's notes II:  
Who's talking bout 'U'? You hurt Orochi's feelings!

Author's notes III: Well, I actually killed him...

Assistant's notes III:  
Keh! ignorestares at picture of 'healthy' and very lively Orochimaru

Autor's notes IV:  
Well, whatever... -.-


	5. Chapter 5

Author's notes: 

I love ya all! Thanks to all of you who reviewed! I don't have your addies, so I'll just send you all imaginary cookies! Hmmmmm! And how good they taste!

Thanks go as always to my sis. You are so hip, and probably the only 'normal' person within a radius of 500 km! -.-''

--------------------

"Dammit, Lee!"

Looking up from where he was waiting for Kisame to get back up from the shattered roof, Lee watched as Shikamaru jumped onto the house he was currenly standing on, panting heavily from the run back to the village.

"Y-you... couldn't by any chance... have waited some secs for me, huh?" Shika asked totally out of breath, hands on his knees and upper body slightly bent as he inhaled deeply.  
"I am very sorry, Shikamaru, but as you can see, returning was more urgent than we have thought."

Looking around Lee's rigid body, hand outstretched and beckoning his opponent to attack again, Shikamaru could see Kisame crouching on the broken tiles of the roof. Blood was seeping out of numerous wounds on his shark-like body and the grayish skin on his right arm was torn were the fractured bones had pierced the sensitive tissue.

Frowning slightly and taking in the whole scene for the first time since arriving, the tactician found Kisame's sword, Samehade lying scattered beside an unmoving form.  
"What..." Eyes wide in realization, he darted to the figure and kneeled down beside him.

"Gai? Hey, can you hear me?" He asked, hands already applying pressure on the gaping wound on the older man's shoulder.  
"Urgh..." Face contorted in pain, Gai stared into the concerned eyes of the chuunin. His eyes were glassy and everything around him was slightly blurred, the semi-darkness of the breaking day not contributing to his hazy vision.

"Just relax, we'll take care of this..." Shikamaru mumbled, searching one-handedly for a compress in his pouch. After he had found it, he covered the wound with it and pressed down again.  
Soon the material had absorbed so much blood, that it couldn't hold the liquid any longer.

"This'll hurt now." Shika told the other man, hoping to reach Gai's mind through the foggy state of consciousness.  
With that he started bandaging the ripped shoulder with what little medical supplies he had found in his pouch, applying as much pressure to the wound as he dared to.

After he had finished, he made Gai swallow a pain killer dry before dragging him towards the edge of the roof.  
There Shikamaru unfolded a tightly packaged thermo-blanket and covered Gai with it. Grunting, he got up from the roof and stared at the ashen face of the jounin. There was nothing he could do except keeping him warm now. A medic would have to take care of the rest.

Turning around, he found Lee fending off Kisame with a series of hard punches and kicks, the speed of the young man almost too fast for the bare eye to follow.

Kisame on the other hand seemed to be at his limit.  
His movements were looking jerky and even uncoordinately to Shikamaru, not something one would expect from one of the most wanted nuke-nin known in their bingo-book.  
The large wounds and the broken arm had taken their toll on his stamina and the fight with Gai before their arrival had probably used up most of his chakra.

Taking a few steps towards the two combatants, Shikamaru brought his hands up into the familiar seal of the Nara clan's special technique, the 'Kagemane no Jutsu.  
Concentrating hard on the target, he saw his shadow in the corner of his eyes travelling fast towards the Akatsuki member...

Lee watched as Kisame drew back his arm to strike again, having noticed the small pause between two kicks of Lee's combo attack.  
Brows knitted together into a concentrated frown, the taijutsu specialist waited for the fist to crash down on him, ready to block it with another self-invented move.

To his surprise, the attack never came.  
Kisame's fist had stopped in mid-swing. Unmoving, just like the rest of his massive body.

"Kagemane success." Lee heard Shikamaru say from somewhere to his right.

"Thank you, Shikamaru." Lee turned around to his friend with a small smile on his lips, giving him the 'thumbs-up.  
"Yeah... just finish it. We have to get help for Gai." He retorted, his concentration on Kisame's body never faltering.

"Right!" Lee shouted, going slightly into his knees as he prepared himself for his final move.  
"Ohhhhh... Konoha senpou!"

Shika watched as Lee jumped high into the air. Just before the other chuunin's leg connected wih the exposed neck of Kisame, Shikamaru pried his hands apart. Without the seal, his shadow immediately shrank back into its original form, stretching out slightly in front of him, just like any other shadow casted by the dawning sun behind him.

With tired eyes he watched as Lee landed on the roof with a slight thud.  
In front of him, the battered Akatsuki member fell in slow motion. His head was twisted at an unnatural angle, dull eyes staring ahead as he finally hit the tiles.

With a sigh, the man with the black ponytail waited for Lee to come over to him, when suddenly a slight movement from behind him caught his attention.

Right on cue, Lee appeared by his side, staring wide-eyed at his teacher, who was futilely trying to get into a sitting position.  
"Gai-sensei!" He cried out, instantly by his side and helping Gai up.

"Lee"  
"Gai-sensei"  
"Lee..."

Making a face, Shikamaru stared at the two men lying in each other's arms, both obviously on the verge of crying.  
It seemed to him, that Gai probably wasn't as half-dead as he had thought. He actually appeared to be very lively, now that the two weirdos were back together...

"How troublesome..."

Pulling away from the embrace, Gai stared at Lee with half closed eyes, exhaustion and pain obvious in the normally so bright black orbs.  
"Lee, I'm so proud of you!" He declared, giving Lee's shoulders a slight squeeze. "But tell me, did you find a medic for Tenten? Are she and the child well?" He asked in a very concerned tone of voice.

"Of course, Gai-sensei! I managed to find Tsunade's beautiful apprentice herself! Sakura has saved both Tenten and Neji's son"  
"A son! Oh, what wonderful news!" Gai sighed dramatically, lips quivering slightly. "But, Lee, where are they now?"

"Sakura demanded we should bring them out of the village. We were on our way to the border of Fire country, when suddenly..."

----------

Looking up in determination, Lee nodded at Shikamaru's words.

"He's right, Neji! We will stand against them as one! Gai-sensei has taught us to be strong even in the face of death. What a man would I be if I abandoned you, Tenten and the wonderful chil. Testament of your youthful love for one another!" Lee said, his eyes smiling proudly into the distance. He had already readied himself, having taken on his famous fighter's stance, one hand behind his back and the other one pointing towards the advancing enemies.

A light breeze played with the foliage on the ground, encircling them in its cool embrace.

The first figures appeared on a tree ahead of them and Lee's features hardened, eyes narrowed as he waited for the unevitable to come. He would fight them with all he had. And if he had to he would play his final trump card... the Lotus blooms twice in Konoha, he himself had told Sakura so many years ago and now was the time to protect something precious. Precious not only to him.

The breeze picked up slightly and Lee tensed visibly, ready to dash towards them in a heartbeat.  
Just before the first sound nin landed in front of the three friends, Lee's eyes caught sight of a small cloud of sand crawling eerily across the ground towards them...

Frowning, he didn't get the chance to follow his train of thoughts, a volley of shuriken and kunai suddenly showering down at them.

To his right, Shikamaru was already busily catching enemies with his shadow-binding-technique. At the same time his shadow crawled up the ninja's bodies and, judging from the sounds of their desperate attempts to inhale, slowly choked them to death.

"Lee! Watch out!"

Startled, Lee turned around, just to find three men jumping down at him from a nearby tree, the sharp edges of their kunais glinting metallic in the moonlight.  
Blocking two opponents with his arms, he landed a hard kick to the third man's stomach. He crashed into a large trunk, wood exploding under his back from the impact.

With a small smile tucking at the corners of his mouth, Lee grabbed the arms of the other two sound nins and started whirling around in a semi-circle. Forced to follow Lee's movement, the two men tried to stop the Konoha shinobi from executing his plan.  
Which obviously consisted of the two enemies, a fast spin and a large tree trunk.

The oto-nin were slammed into the hard bark with a sickening thud. They fell down onto the mossy ground unmoving, their limb hands no longer able to hold the kunais.

Having not bothered to watch his opponents go down, Lee had already engaged another two ninjas in a taijutsu fight.  
Naturally they didn't stand a chance against the man who had been training the body arts for most of his young life.  
"Konoha senpou!" Lee yelled, kicking the sound-nins into oblivion.

Turning around, he surveyed the scene in front of him.

Ten dead men were lying scattered in a circle around the white-eyed Hyuga, who had taken on his famous stance of the clan's specialty, 'the gentle fist style, 64 hands of Hakke.  
Those oto-nin who were unlucky enough not to die immediately after the attack, were doomed to suffer a slow death by the inability of their inner organs to function properly anymore. With their keirakukei (chakra channels) damaged beyond repair, it was only a matter of time until their hearts would stop beating.

A slight noise from behind startled Lee out of his internal musings and he turned around immediately to check on the source of the noise.

To his shock, he found three hostile ninjas standing in front of the fallen tree Neji had put Tenten and his son into to hide them from the arriving army of enemies.  
Shock clearly written across his features, Lee stared wide-eyed at them, boots rooted to the spot and legs unable to move for a second.

"Hey, look what we've got!" One of the trio said, pulling out a chuunin vest with a squirming baby. "Looks like we found a fresh Konoha bastard!" Chuckling, he tossed it over to his comrade and bent down towards the hole, obviously intending to drag out Tenten as well.

It was then that something klicked inside Lee's mind and his legs followed the order of his brain to move again.  
To him it felt like he needed an eternity, but in reality he was by their side within an eye's blink.

He remembered kicking the one with the tightly wrapped child hard in the chest. The ninja was so perplexed that he let go of the bundle and went down on his knees, wheezing and struggling for breath.

While catching the falling baby, Lee turned his unprotected back to the third man. In the corner of his eyes he could see the shinobi who had taken hold of Tenten's collar, pulling out a kunai and aiming for Lee's side.

What happened next was still a mystery to Lee.  
All he knew was that something had wrapped around his ankle and had literally cut the ground from under his feet, sending him flying to the soil.

There he lay still, sprawling on his back with the wailing and squirming baby in his hands.  
As he looked up into the sky, he could make out the two men floating some ten feet above his head, covered completely in a thick layer of sand.

"Sabakukyu... (desert coffin)."

The next thing Lee knew, was that they fell dead before his feet, their crashed bodies looking like they had been buried underneath a house.  
At the same time his ears caught the screams of the last remaining sound-ninjas as they were overtaken by the same fate as their comrades mere seconds ago.

"Hey, wimp! You alright?"

Turning his head slightly to his right, Lee found Shikamaru sitting on the ground, leaning back against a tree as he tried to catch his breath. Right in front of him, a slender woman was standing, grinning cockily down at him. She was resting her elbow casually on a large fan she had dug hard into the ground.

"Stop yelling." Shikamaru told her and added in a murmer, "women are so troublesome..."

Sighing, Lee closed his eyes for a second, inhaling deeply to calm his itching nerves.  
"Are you alright?" A voice directly above him, startled Lee and his eyes snapped open immediately.

He stared right into the black-rimmed eyes of Sabaku no Gaara, the new Kazekage. He had his arms folded across his chest and a sand gourd, larger than Lee could remember, was strapped to his back.  
"Yes, thanks to you." He got up into a sitting position and looked down at the again silent baby.

"Tenten!"

Frowning, he gazed around to find Neji carefully lifting his unconscious fiancee up in his arms. Tenten was lying half-way out of the fallen tree, her breathing shallow again.  
Neji was stroking her features with an almost feather-like touch, whispering soothing words. Probably to calm both Tenten and himself.

"Is it 'his'?" Kankuro, who had just taken up position beside his younger brother, nodded his chin towards Neji, not bothering to use his hand. Which were both buried deep inside the pockets of his overall. He too had his special weapon tied securely onto his back.

"Yes!" Lee retorted, finally getting up from the ground and almost standing to attention in front of the two sand-siblings.  
"This is Hyuga Neji's son!"

"Yo." Shikamaru's voice suddenly errupted from behind Lee. "You here to lend us a hand"  
"As a matter of fact, yes." Kankuro replied, watching as the other man stopped beside Lee.  
"Was about time... dunno how much longer we could have lasted. The Fifth told me, that ya already know the basics. Orochimaru attacked yesterday after he had lured most jou- and chuunin into an ambush at the border. I have no numbers regarding casualties, nor do I know of the whereabouts of Lady Tsunade herself."

"Temari, get the squads to move out." Gaara told his sister, who merely nodded before jumping off towards the waiting army of sand-nins.

"I will come with you!" Lee declared, looking as determined as always when he wanted to have his way.  
"Here!" With that he pushed the unmoving bundle into Gaara's arms, either not noticing or ignoring the look of horror and disbelief on the Kazekage's face. "Take care of this baby and please, I beg you in the name of Neji and Tenten, protect it at all costs!"

Not waiting for an answer of the dumbfounded man, Lee turned around and followed the leaving sand-shinobis back to the village.

"I'll go with him... here is a letter from Haruno Sakura. There's all you need to know for Tenten's treatment"  
Nodding towards the two brothers, Shikamaru too disappeared behind the large trees of the forest.

"Ha! Ya got some tough job there, Gaara! Who'd have thought you have a babysitter inside ya!" Kankuro laughed, slapping Gaara on his back.

----------

Frowning down at the gurgling baby in his arms, Gaara wondered for the umpteenth time why 'he' was standing in the middle of a forest with a child?  
He was the Kazekage and not the babysitter for this Hyuga brat.

A slight noise caught his attenion and without looking up, Gaara lifted his hand slowly. After some seconds he closed it into a tight fist.  
Some meters away he could hear the last choking sounds of his opponents as the sand coffin squeezed them to death.

Sighing, he concentrated again on the squirming baby, noticing that the boy's lips had started quivering and watery, puffy eyes closed tightly shut as he started crying in a loud, steady tune.

"Stop." He told the baby in a low tone of voice, which would normally make even the biggest enemies scramble away in fear.  
Unfortunately, 'this' enemy showed absolutely no sign that there was even the slightest bit of fear in any body part of his tiny form at all. The only sign that the baby had noticed him at all being a short pause between two wails and the opening of his bright eyes.

The clear white eyes, that were the trademark of the Hyuga clan and Byakugan users, looked up at him for a short moment and Gaara wondered whether this child would ever be able to use his special eyesight even with a woman as his mother that didn't possess the kekkei genkai of his father's famous family.

Suddenly, the baby's crying started again, even picking up in volume and saliva was bubbling at the corners of his mouth.

With a grunt, Gaara turned around, heading to where his older brother was leaning against a large tree. He was watching a man with an ANBU mask forming the final seal of his jutsu and concentrating hard on the soil of the clearing the shinobis from suna had decided to put up camp in.

A low rumble spread out through the ground, the trees shaking slightly. Suddenly the soil broke up and the top of a roof appeared from below, slowly being pushed out of the ground from the building that was making its way into the clearing.

After some moments of silence, only interrupted by the creaking sound of the building, the ground stopped shaking and the masked man got up from where he had been crouching on the ground in front of the three-storey house and walked across the clearing to where Gaara had taken up position beside Kankuro.

"This should be enough of a provisional hospital." The man said, lifting the mask, that resembled a cat, slightly and swept a hand across his features.  
"Yes, it'll work just fine." Kankuro declared, walking past the man and heading to where a small army of shinobis, Konoha and Suna, were taking care of the wounded they had been able to carry out of the destroyed village.

Nodding towards the Konoha ANBU, Gaara followed his brother, the baby still wailing in his arms.

"Lord Kazekage!" Indifferent eyes watched as a Konoha kunoichi walked up beside him. Gaara knew her from the last two visits he had paid to this village.  
"Yes, Shizune?"

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, Rock Lee has put you in, but from here on I will take this child." Shizune said, already in the process of taking the baby from Gaara's secure hold. To her dismay he didn't let go of the newborn, instead glaring down at her.

"Is he in need of medical attention?" He asked her in a low tone of voice.  
Frowning, Shizune looked nervously down at where her hands were hovering dangerously near the baby's chest.  
"Uhm... no?" She finally answered in a timid voice... not that she was afraid of him...

"Does he need food?" Gaara asked her again.  
"No... babies normally don't drink during the first few hours after birth..." She mumbled, attempting halfheartedly to lead the topic into another direction.

"Is there a problem with me taking care of this baby that I am not aware of?" Gaara directed yet another question at the stunned medic, who, in return, withdrew her hands from where she had placed them above the child's torso so fast, that it almost seemed like she had touched something hot.  
"No, no, no! Nooo, there's got to be a misunderstanding!" Shizune hastily replied, shaking her head and bringing her hands up in a defensive manner.

"Then I fear, I can't let you take him with you."

Mouth agape, Shizune watched as Gaara walked past her, leaving no room for arguments as he showed her his back and headed again to where Kankuro was by now helping fellow shinobis to carry wounded inside the large wooden house.

It was then that something caught his attention. Or better the 'lack' of something.  
During his 'inquiry' the baby had stopped crying.

Lying peacefully inside the large blanket he had been wrapped into some half a hour ago, the newest member of the Hyuga clan stared happily into the dark-rimmed eyes of Sabaku no Gaara.

----------

"Cling to life and live miserably... hate me... despise me. Those were the last words you gave me before you disappeared that day." Sasuke told his older brother in a calm voice. "I 'did' cling to life... because life was all I had. And I learned to hate you from the darkest part of my heart... "

Clenching his hands into tight fists, Sasuke stared into the cold orbs of the other man, finding no emotions at all in them.  
He on the other hand once again cursed his own inability to stay detached and focused, blaming both himself and the people he had once called friends (and hoped to be allowed to call so again in the future).

If he survived...

"You told me, hatred was the only way of gaining the power I would need to kill you. Hatred that made me blind for what was directly in front of my eyes. I went down a road I shouldn't have taken... " The words stuck in his throat when he remembered the years in Orochimaru's tomb. The pain and humiliation he had been forced to endure.

The loneliness and desperation.

"You are still foolish, little brother." Itachi suddenly told him, his stance shifting the slightest bit as he prepared himself for what lay ahead.

"Yeah... you're probably right." A short chuckle escaped Sasuke's throat as he shook his head slightly.  
"But now it is my turn to measure my capacity!"

There was no warning as Sasuke's hand moved to the shuriken holster at his thigh and threw five of the deadly weapons at his older brother with deadly precision.

Itachi was gone before the shuriken could even hit him, their sharp edges imbedding themselves in the wall of the house behind him.  
Looking calmly around, Sasuke saw a flicker of movement some ten feet to his right. He stamped hard on a small log that was lying by his feet, making it fly off the ground. He grabbed it in mid-air and brought it up in front o his face. He felt a small impact as ten kunais bore their heads into the beam, staying stuck in the wood.

His black eyes had long ago turned into a bloody red, three pinwheels seemingly surrounding Sasuke's pupils.  
With his right hand he pulled out three of his brother's kunais. He clasped them in between both his hands and formed a seal at the same time.

Counting silently to three, he suddenly threw them towards an empty spot to his left.

His sharingan saw the movement of his running brother like in slow-motion, telling Sasuke exactly where Itachi would be one second in advance. Sasuke had long ago learned how to use this one second to his advantage.

One kunai imbedded itself in a lantern, the second one meter in front of it in the floor and the third landed a heartbeat behind the end of Iachi's cloak.  
With a hot blaze of fire, they exploded, the flames shooting high into the air and burning everything in close proximity to ashes.

But Sasuke knew there would be more needed to get his brother than such a genin trick.

Right on cue, Sasuke felt something tighten around his chest.  
'Chakra strings!', he thought as the pressure around his upper torso increased.

Suddenly he felt the ends of his nerves tingling.  
Itachi was somewhere behind him...

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!"

A large wall of fire rolled towards him, engulfing everything in the street in a deadly embrace.  
Eyes wide, Sasuke exhaled immediately and, giving the strings no time to adjust to the new girth of his chest, brought his hands together and formed a set of seals in the second that was left before the wall eventually reached his unprotected body.

Itachi exhaled the last chakrafied oxygen and watched as the flames died down.

For a fraction of a second, surprise registered on his face when he found the spot where Sasuke had been standing surrounded by a solid wall of ice. It hadn't even started to melt from the heat of his jutsu, the chakra string still leading through the ice to where his brother was probably still standing.

For a very long second, the street was silent, the only noise being some lonely explosions in the distance and the sound of water gushing out of broken pipes down into the streets.

Suddenly a jolt of pain ran through his back, startling Itachi. He jumped back from the source of the pain immediately.  
Sasuke had appeared right behind him and had used the memento to pierce his brother's back with a kunai.

Not giving his older brother time to react, Sasuke attacked frontally with a short sword and a kunai occupying both hands.  
Itachi blocked the kunai with his bare forearm, ignoring the stinging pain and the blood dripping down his arm. He suddenly twisted it around, making Sasuke lose his grip on the weapon. Itachi grabbed the kunai without hesitating and swung it around, the weapon clashing with the blade of the sword.

"It seems you have finally lived up to my expectations, little brother." Itachi told Sasuke in a monotone voice, pushing the kunai against the sword and forcing Sasuke back some centimeters.  
"Maybe it is time to see what hatred helped you to achieve..."

Exhaling slowly, the pinwheels of Itachi's sharingan shifted into an even stranger shape.  
To his surprise, Sasuke's eyes had also already transformed into the deadliest weapon of the famous Uchiha clan, the two black and red orbs glaring angrily into those of his older brother.

Jaws set, Sasuke watched as his surroundings changed dramatically, the last thing of 'this' world he saw in the corner of his eyes, being a tile that was just in the process of falling down a roof to his right...

Where the poorly illuminated main street had been was now the large garden of his birthplace, the rich colors of his memories having been replaced by the sickly combination of red, black and white of the genjutsu.

"You know that this has never happened before in the history of our clan, Sasuke?" Itachi suddenly asked, bringing Sasuke's mind back to the fight.  
They were standing in the middle of the garden, the small pond his mother had loved to sit by being the only barrier between the two brothers.

As he leaned over slightly, he could see his black and white features being reflected by the red surface of the water.

"A fight within the Tsukiyomi (moon of the underworld). Even I do not know what will happen after we lifting the doujutsu." Itachi paused as he, as well, looked into the water, red from the reflection of the crimson sky above them.

Sasuke didn't answer verbally.  
Instead he lifted his hand, a long katana having suddenly appeared in his tight grasp. The head was pointing directly at Itachi's chest.

This was 'his' world as much as Itachi's... he would need anything he knew about this genjutsu to damage Itachi's mind enough to get an advantage.  
'He' had been trapped in his brother's Mangekyu before. And unlike his brother, Sasuke knew what would be waiting for him in the real world afterwards...

----------

"You better make it, you ass..." Naruto mumbled under his breath, taking a better hold on Kakashi's pants as he felt his former sensei slowly sliding down his shoulder where he was slung over.  
"I still have to beat the crap outta ya for pulling those fucking stunts on us..."

"Naruto"  
Frowning, the young man in question looked up to find Sakura watching him carefully with concerned eyes.

"'s nothing... just wondering what's happening back there"  
"You're not the only one." The pink-haired kunoichi answered, averting her eyes and staring instead at her running feet.

Where they were heading exactly, Sakura couldn't tell. All she knew was that they had to get Kakashi as far away from the two fighting brothers as possible. She didn't have enough chakra left in her system to even stabilize him, let alone healing his mind completely.

Looking up, Sakura's eyes travelled across the broken houses and streets. No tree inside the village was still standing and every building was at least one story shorter. But apart from the unbelievable destruction they came across, Sakura realized that there hadn't been any attacks from sound nins so far. They hadn't in fact even seen a fight between sound and leaf and the gigantic snakes had disappeared, too.

Konoha had gained the upper hand at last.

"How 'bout that one?" Naruto asked, nodding his chin towards a small hut that looked very familiar to Sakura.  
"The Ichiraku?" She asked incredulously, staring at the small house, which appeared to be the only one within sight that wasn't in danger of collapsing.

"Alright"  
With that they sped towards the large entrance of the ramen stand and dashed inside, jumping over the counter. They crouched down low, Sakura with kunai in her uninjured hand and Naruto glaring daggers at potential enemies. To their surprise there actually 'were' two ninjas already occupying the small space between the counter and the stove.

"Kurenai? Asuma?" The female shinobi looked up at the trio in bewilderment, stopping dead in what she was doing.

Brows knitted into a confused frown, Sakura noticed that Kurenai had just been in the process of tying a part of her dress around the upper half of Asuma's right thigh. The floor where he was sitting, leaning heavily against the counter behind him, was dark red, the puddle of blood slowly growing.

"Sakura!" Kurenai exclaimed, turning around and showing her with blood stained face to the younger woman.  
"It won't stop bleeding... I can't make it stop..." She said, but couldn't continue as her lips started quivering.

Sakura noticed, that her eyes were unfocused and her features were even paler than normal. Tainted hands were trembling violently, almost unable to hold the makeshift bandages anymore. Hot tears were running down her cheeks, washing away the grime and blood.  
Without wasting another thought, Sakura crawled across he small space towards the two fellow Konoha ninjas and laid a assuring hand on Kurenai's shaking shoulder, squeezing it lightly.

"It's alright. I'll take over from here, ok?" She said in a calm voice, smiling gently up at the other woman. Kurenai nodded slowly, letting go of the bandage reluctantly and edged away from the man with the beard.

"Asuma? Can yo hear me"  
For some long seconds, the hut was silent, interrupted only by the short gasps of the injured man.  
"Yeah... " Asuma finally mumbled, squeezing his eyes tightly shut as another wave of pain apparently ran through his body.

"That's good. Tell me, how did you get that hole in the first place, huh?" Sakura asked him, her hands already forming a triangular seal above the gaping wound on his thigh. Blood was spurting out of the injury in time to his heartbeat, meaning that the weapon had ripped open the leg's main artery.

"Damn sound n... Argh!" Another wave of pain caught him unprepared and his jaw muscles clenched and unclenched as he tried to breathe through the pain. When Sakura looked up, she found Kurenai kneeling right beside him, her hand caressing his cheek as she whispered soothing words. Her other hand was intertwined with his, her thumb stroking a circular pattern across his skin.

"Hey, Asuma... what did happen?" Sakura had to keep him talking. If he lost consciousness, she couldn't tell whether he'd ever wake up again.

"Attacked... from behind..." He replied in between gasps, but his voice was already barely audible and even Kurenai had to move closer to his cheek to make out his words.

As Sakura looked down at her hands, a wave of nausea suddenly washed over her and her vision blurred. She could barely see her fingers anymore and had problems keeping her eyes open. So this was it. Healing the deadly wound on Asuma's thigh would be the last thing she would be able to do. Her chakra reserves were empty.

Sakura had hoped to be at least able to stay conscious, but it seemed she had overdone it.  
"Naruto?" She asked with a trembling voice.

"What? Can I do anything?" His concerned voice sounded dull in her ears.  
"Promise... promise me, not to... don't do anything dangerous... please... don't get yourself killed." She whispered, black and white dots dancing through her vision.

"What do you mean"  
"Don't get killed... I won't... don't leave me alone here..."

With that, Sakura's eyes closed slowly, the last thing she heard being Naruto as he yelled her name.

----------

The pain was nearly unbearable.  
Looking down at his hands, Sasuke found them covered in white liquid... his blood.

Slowly he fell to his knees, hands resting on the ground for support as his body threatened to collapse from exhaustion and pain. There were still at least six kunai sticking out of various parts of his battered body, the blood seeping out of uncountable wounds in a steady stream. Sasuke almost wished he'd finally run out of blood.

'For how much longer will I be able to keep the jutsu upright?', he asked himself silently as he looked up from the black ground and into the red sky. A strangely colored moon shone down at him mockingly.

He was so damn tired. It felt like the fight had already lasted for days. But it was hard to tell here, where nature was reduced to memories and pictures made up in their own minds.

A slight movement caught his attention and when he averted his gaze from the moon, Sasuke found his brother standing some ten meters away from him in the middle of the main street. At least a dozen kunai and shuriken were sticking out of his back from Sasuke's last attack and a short katana was still imbedded deeply within his thigh. Itachi hadn't even bothered to pull it out.

His normally stoic features were contorted in pain and his chest was heaving heavily. The two brothers were at their limit.

"In here, we will never die..." Itachi suddenly said, white blood running down the corners of his mouth. "Maybe it is time to finish it."

'Finish it', Sasuke repeated it in his mind, a small chuckle escaping his lips.  
His brother was right. In this genjutsu, they could continue fighting each other, even killing each other for as long as their minds could stand the trauma. But that was not the way he wanted Itachi to die. He needed to it with his own hands. Face to face.

"Right."

The two men closed their eyes simultaneously...

As Sasuke opened them again he suddenly felt the bile rise is in dry throat and his stomach constricting. Everything around him was black. Pitch black.

Disorientated, he strained his ears into the silence, starting, when the sound of a tile smashing on the ground to his right startled him.  
'The tile...', he thought perplexed. 'So the Tsukiyomi has only lasted for two seconds, huh!'

Sasuke closed his eyes for a moment and took a calming breath. His muscles were hurting, feeling like he had run a marathon in high speed.  
When he opened them again, his surroundings were still bathed in black.

"Wh-?" He mumbled bewildered, feeling the panic gnawing at his consciousness.  
Why couldn't he see anything? It was early morning, meaning that it had to be bright. But even if it had been night, Sasuke should have at least been able to make out the outlines of buildings.

Sasuke had never come across such absolute darkness.

'Am I blind'  
The thought alone made him almost lose it.

What had caused it? Was it only temporary or would he be stuck in this blackness for the rest of his life?  
'The Mangekyu...' That was the only logic explanation. Ever since Sasuke had been able to awaken this eyes, he had had problems with his eyesight. Things farther away than twenty meters had been slightly blurred and fuzzy.

If the short usage of those special sharingan had already caused slight deteriotation, then maybe having used them to counterattack Itachi's Mangekyu 'and' cast the genjutsu on him at the same time had caused the complete loss of his sight...

Suddenly a retching noise caught his attention, reminding Sasuke that his brother was still here, ready to kill him within a heartbeat. But judging by the sounds, the nuke-nin had other problems to take care of.  
The retching had stopped and Itachi was fighting back the dry heaves that were still churning his stomach.

'What does it feel like to taste your own medicine, brother?', Sasuke mused, straightening as he took a first insecure step into the direction he presumed his brother to be kneeling.

This was 'his' chance to finish him off. Once and for all!

Drawing a kunai, Sasuke closed his eyes. Keeping them open in an attempt to 'see' was futile and occupied his brain too much, drawing his attention from his other senses. There were other things that 'mattered' now!

Smell, feeling, hearing. He had to rely on those only.

A slight breeze crawled across his face and some small pebbles rolled under his feet. The smell of fire and bile reached his nose and the sound of his brother taking a deep breath told him that the direction was still right.

Silently, he lifted his arm, kunai still in one hand.  
Sasuke tried to imagine his surroundings. There had to be the broken building, Naruto had been buried under somewhere behind him.  
And the drugstore of that old lady to his right. A large boulder, probably a part of the inn would be lying some feet away to his left, having crashed a bench and a lantern.

Again Sasuke could hear Itachi struggling for breath and calculated that his brother had to be already within a three meter range. Right on then, the chakra pattern of Itachi appeared, making the hair on Sasuke's arms stand up.

With ears trained to hear what wasn't there, Sasuke focused all his senses on his brother and aimed the kunai at a spot about two and a half meters in front of him. His other hand had already grabbed a shuriken, ready to finish the job within an eye's blink.

'Now!'

A jolt of pain ran suddenly through Sasuke's shoulder as a kunai sliced it open...

--------------------

FINIS?

Author's rambling II:

Well, well... long time no see, ne? I wish you all a wonderful new year! Lots of success and cookies and even more Naruto (no Kakashi for you! He's all mine! hugs him)

To answer a question in advance, which would probably sound something like:"Where the hell is the fight 'inside' the doujutsu?", I'll jump into a heart tearing explanation:

Time is nothing but a subjective sensation.

Itachi's and Sasuke's lil family reunion inside the genjutsu felt (for them) like days! Days!  
I would need two (!) chapters to describe that part alone! My poor nerves revolted quite vehemently when I even thought about doing so. Also, the effect with the falling tile, which I sooooo love, wouldn't have been that good and, well... effective!

I hope you all understand though! I assume every singleone of you wonderful people (I'm a ass-kisser, I know o.O' ) would have in the first place! Now go and drop a review and if you want I'll answer the question above for you... again n.n

And always keep in mind: Time is what we make of it!


	6. Chapter 6

Author's notes: 

I finished this as fast as possible, 'cause I won't have much time in the next few weeks! I'll have my intermediate diploma in two weeks and a dozen exams to pass! Wish me luck! Afterwards I'll immediately finish the next chappie (in case you still want one XD ).

I recommend you read this one while listening to the incredibly sad song of the Naruto anime! That one when Zabusa dies or when Sasuke goes and Sakura declares her undying love or whenever something important and tear-spilling happens! You know which one I mean? It'll hopefully contribute to the emotional parts of this chapter.

I love you all for having reviewed! I was smiling a hole into my face when I read 'em! I really appreciate every single comment, even if it was only one word! So don't stop and keep on telling me what you think!

Thanks and hugs go as always to my wonderful sister aka Orochimaren! You rock! Kakasarah loves you!

--------------------

"Shit!" Swearing soundly, Sasuke swivelled around on the spot, the kunai in his hand slicing through air. But the man who had attacked him was already gone.

A sticky wetness was descended his back from where his opponent's weapon had caused a gaping wound on his shoulder.

Struggling to regain his composure, Sasuke took a calming breath. Slowly, the feeling of shock subsided, leaving behind a bitter, iron taste from the moment when he had bit his tongue in surprise. Sasuke realized that he had his eyes wide open, pupils that couldn't see flickering across his surroundings in a desperate attempt to find his brother.

A shiver ran down his spine when he felt a familiar chakra pattern appearing in front of him.

Grip tightening on his kunai, Sasuke straightened.  
With an effort he closed his eyes again and allowed his other senses to take over completely. There was again the smell of bile and blood and his ears picked up the heavy gasping of his brother.

He had apparently still problems dealing with what had happened inside the Tsukiyomi ('moon of the underworld'), his mind unable to come to terms with all the information that had flooded his senses.  
Sasuke remembered his first encounter with the doujutsu and suppressed a shudder. The power of the Mangekyu didn't lie in injuring the opponent physically. It was the mental damage and the problem of dealing with it afterwards that made it a weapon to be feared.

Taking an insecure step forward, heading again to the body that emitted the strong chakra, Sasuke tried to comprehend what had happened after they had lifted the genjutsu.

It seemed Itachi, having realized that he was in no condition to fight right away, had hid his chakra signature from Sasuke's senses and had created a Kage Bunshin, having made it appear behind his little brother.  
When Sasuke had noticed that 'someone' was behind him, it had been already too late.

"You can't see either, right?" Itachi's voice suddenly errupted. Sasuke flinched involuntarily and tightened his grip around the hilt of his kunai.

Against his will, the young man's eyes snapped open again. A momentarily feeling of panic rose within Sasuke, making the nerves in his body tingle in fear and anticipation.  
'You're blind! Deal with it!', a voice told Sasuke from the back of mind.

"Yeah..." Sasuke heard himself mumble, not knowing whom he had answered.  
"Unlike you, I'm already partially used to this condition. My eyesight has suffered from the constant usage of the Mangekyu and I was forced to accept the fact that one day I'd be blind."

Frowning, Sasuke wondered why Itachi was suddenly so talkative. And especially why he was telling him details about his weaknesses. An odd feeling developed in his stomach and the raven-haired man stopped dead in the middle of the destroyed street, eyes still wide open as he 'stared' ahead.

"You won't be a problem for me. It seems you havn't inherited the hatred you need in order to kill me." The Akatsuki member continued. Heart pounding angrily in his ears, Sasuke glared at where he assumed the elder Uchiha to be.  
Itachi had stopped breathing heavily and judging by the sound of scraping of boots, had gotten up from the ground. Another noise, so subtle that Sasuke had never paid much attention to it, made him clench his jaws. The sound of a shuriken holster being opened.

"Having revealed his Mangekyu to me, has been a vital mistake of your sensei... Kakashi, unlike us, hasn't suffered from any obvious damage to his eyes. He has in fact a very accurate sight." Sasuke listened as Itachi took three steps towards him, his monotone voice accompanying the noise he made as he advanced.

"It made me wonder... If we say he has mastered the Mangekyu about 8 months ago, this would mean, he shouldn't be able to see shapes farther away than twenty meters sharply. Now I ask you..." Sasuke could almost feel the subtle grin spreading out on Itachi's lips as he drew a breath before his final revelation. "...'who' has acquired the secrets of our treasured sharingan and has the knowledge needed to heal such delicate structures as chakra channels?"

In the blackness surrounding Sasuke, a picture of a young woman flashed up. Her face was tainted with dirt and blood and her green eyes looked tired and desperate, emotions that were immediately replaced by determination and passion when her patient begged her to rescue an unborn child. Pink hair fell in front of her eyes as she turned around to give orders to her friend, and her hands glowed in a darker blue than before.

"Sakura..." The name sprang forbidden to his lips and Sasuke's eyes closed as he fought his first instinct to attack.

"It seems the kyubi shouldn't be my only priority anymore"  
"Leave her alone..." Sasuke suddenly choked out, his chest rising angrily as he dug the heel of his left boot into the ground for leverage.

"Not enough hatred yet"  
Itachi hadn't even finished his sentence when he felt Sasuke's chakra signature vanishing into nothingness.

Unable to use his eyes, Sasuke focused on hearing, feeling and smell.  
A faint trace of blood, a feather like breeze as he moved past Itachi in a blur and the noise of a boot lifting off the ground. Itachi was one and a half meter to his right, moving slowly around in a circle as he was probably searching for him.

Stopping dead, Sasuke dashed to his right, two kunais in each hand. He jumped high into the air and threw them down at the unmoving person. Before the weapons had hit their target, Sasuke had already landed on a large boulder, his arm shielding his face protectively.

With a loud explosion, the tags around the kunais went off, sending debris flying through the air. They showered down on Sasuke like a rain of stinging needles.  
Beside the noise the attack had caused, the black-haired man noticed the sound of six shuriken slicing the air on their way towards him.

Still crouching on the boulder, Sasuke flipped backwards a fraction of a second before the shuriken would have hit him, his fingers digging hard into the rough texture of the ground as he landed in a handstand.

Without wasting a moment, he jumped back into a kneeling position and clasped his hands together in the tiger seal. He strained his ears into the silence, but they couldn't pick up anything. Neither his brother nor a Kage Bunshin.  
Suddenly two senbons imbedded their sharp heads in his thigh and were soon followed by a shower of other needles.

Not letting go of the seal, Sasuke dived behind the boulder for cover, feeling faintly the chakra pattern of his brother reappearing right where he had been kneeling a second ago.

He formed the last two seals to awaken the jutsu he had learned a year ago from Orochimaru.  
'Hidden twin snakes', he thought, an image of the ninjutsu popping into his mind as he waited for the typical sounds.

Right on cue, he heard the boulder cracking open in front of him, closely followed by the ground and a part of a wall.  
A whoosh of air indicated Sasuke that the boulder had been broken into half as a twelve meter snake wound its way out of the stone. He didn't have to see it in order to know what was happening.

It was attacking Itachi frontally, angry snarls telling Sasuke that his brother was fighting back vehemently.  
There was a grunt from the other man, closely followed by another, lightly darker snarl, which came from the second snake. Sasuke imagined their long lithe bodies gliding across the broken street, their red forked tongues flickering in and out of scaled lips.

"Amaterasu (divine illumination jutsu)!"

Frowning, Sasuke listened as the snakes broke down in the street, their bodies writhing in pain. It was then that he felt a strange heat spreading out across the boulder, crawling slowly towards him.

Jumping back in realization, Sasuke tried to imagine how the jutsu his brother had casted looked like.  
The black flames must have already decomposed the bodies of the gigantic snakes and were now spreading out across the surrounding area, burning everything on their deadly path.

'Amaterasu is a doujutsu...', Sasuke mused, brows knitted together in confusion as he jumped away into the opposite direction as silently as possible. He had hid his chakra for now, not intending to draw his brother's attention. He had to work out a new strategy before engaging Itachi in another fight.

'That Itachi can use this jutsu would mean, that the blindness hasn't affected the sharingan itself... '  
Which meant that maybe the state of his eyes was either temporary or reversible...

Tentatively, Sasuke reached out blindly. He knew that something was right in front of him and hoped it was large enough to work as a shield. When his fingers came into contact with the rough texture of wood, Sasuke knew that it had to be at least a part of a stall. Slowly he edged around it and leaned back heavily against one of the four tires.

Carefully he felt along his trouser pants to where the senbons were still sticking out of his thigh, blood dripping down his leg from the deep puncture wounds. As he touched them, he felt the liquid pulsing out of the injury in the rhythm of his heartbeat. Itachi had hit the main artery at the inside of his thigh...

Unwinding a bandage from around his ankle he deliberately tied it around his thigh, applying as much pressure as he dared to without cutting the blood circulation completely.  
There was a sudden feel of exhaustion when he allowed his head to fall back against the stall and his limbs felt heavy like dead weights. The strain on his mind and body was catching up on him.

Taking stock of his injuries was no good idea, Sasuke decided, trying to ignore the sticky feeling as his clothes clung to his body from his bleeding wounds and sweat.  
He knew that killing Itachi was slowly but gradually slipping out of his fingers. His stamina, just like his chakra reserves were low and he doubted that this break would help in the matter.

'I have to finish it with one move', he thought, eyes that couldn't see searching in the darkness behind closed lids for anything that would help...

But there was nothing.  
Summoning wasn't an option anymore, for it would alone use up all of his energy. Something he couldn't afford to.  
Any fire-attack was useless if one couldn't see where to aim or if one couldn't estimate how much chakra to use to hit the target... and he wasn't even talking about a 'moving' opponent!

In the back of his mind, a voice kept on whispering an attack he had learned many years ago. It had been his favourite move since then, having helped him to kill many enemies. Even Orochimaru's medical pet, Kabuto, hadn't survived a full blast of his jutsu.

'Chidori', the word just wouldn't leave him alone...

The words of the man who had taught him 'Chidori' repeated themselves in his blank mind. It had been the day before he had left Konoha, his friends and his future. When he had made his way down into the abyss...

'Chidori is not to be used against your friends or for revenge... you should already know what this power is for.' Kakashi had told him solemnly and Sasuke 'had' understood.  
It had been his sensei's way of telling him to turn from the path of avenging his family. Kakashi had intended on opening Sasuke's eyes for what was lying directly in front of him, waiting patiently to finally get a chance.

His new family.

'Chidori' was a jutsu to be used to save them. Konoha, Naruto...

Sakura...

There was a strange feeling that spread out through his mind suddenly.  
'Was this new anger, this newly inflamed hatred against Itachi just his wish to protect them? Was this actually still about revenge at all?'

'It seems the kyubi shouldn't be my only priority anymore', Itachi had said.  
Gaining the power of the nine-tails meant killing Naruto. Itachi and Akatsuki would have the means to destroy 'his' village.  
And Sakura?  
A bitter taste lingered on his tongue when he thought about what Itachi would do with her.

Was 'Chidori' the only thing capable of saving them after all?

But he couldn't use it, even if he wanted. Without being able to see his brother, there was no way to even attempt it. Itachi would be able to dodge before Sasuke had even decided where to thrust it. One didn't need sharingans to hear the chirping sound of the 'Raikiri' to know what was about to happen.

Suddenly a thought hit him.  
'But maybe...'

----------

"How's he doing?"

Bewildered, Kurenai looked up to find Naruto staring down at her. She was leaning tiredly back against the wall of the Ichiraku, Asuma's head lying motionless in her lap.

"The bleeding has stopped, but his breathing is still shallow..." She answered slowly, her red eyes flickering to the area of his thigh where a large wound had been ten minutes ago. The ground was covered in blood, hand- and footprints indicating where Sakura and Kurenai had been kneeling.

An exhausted yawn threatened to escape her lips, so Kurenai merely nodded towards the two unmoving forms beside Naruto.  
"Sakura is still unconscious... and Kakashi... I'm no medic, but I guess"  
"Naruto?..."

Frowning, the blond man swivelled around to find his former sensei staring tiredly up at him through half closed lids.  
"Kakashi! Boy, ya got us worried there for a sec!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning like a cheshire cat. He was glad that at least one of his concerns had decided to vanish.

Coughing, Kakashi tried to pry his lids further apart, but to his dismay, his efforts were futile.  
"Looks like... I'm stuck like this... for a while." He finally mumbled, letting out a long strained breath.

"Yeah, seems so..." Naruto's gaze suddenly became distant as he looked at Sakura. She was, beside Tsunade, the only one capable of healing Kakashi faster. At least she had been able to get him back into the land of consciousness before she had passed out.

"But don't even think... you could take... advantage of me"  
One brow risen, Naruto stared down at Kakashi with questioning eyes.  
"My mask is prohibited area..."

A lopsided grin spread out on Naruto's face at that. Patting a hand on the silver-haired shinobi's chest (and ignoring a pained groan from him pointedly), Naruto chuckled warmly. "Seems like you can read minds after all!"

Suddenly, the smile vanished out of Kakashi's eyes, surprising Naruto momentarily.  
"Was it Sasuke"  
The question didn't shock the younger man at all. This was Kakashi, meaning that even though he had been out cold when their former teammate had appeared, he could have still realized it from the beginning. Knowing the unknowable, or looking underneath the underneath... that was Kakashi-sensei for you!

"I thought I had felt... his chakra pattern for a second before I activated the Mangekyu... but I wasn't sure then..." He said, sounding almost apologetic to Naruto.  
"Yeah, he's here... he got us a head start from Itachi." Naruto paused, making a tight fist as he remembered his words. "He promised to make it... "

Looking into the averted eyes of his ex-student, Kakashi registered a shift of emotions. There was something like determination and anger clouding the younger man's bright blue orbs.

"Naruto..." Kakashi didn't get the chance to finish when Naruto suddenly got up and cut him off mid-sentence.  
"Take care of Sakura for me. I'll be back soon!"

With that he smashed his palm on the counter and jumped across the structure in one fluid motion, making no noise as he started running away in the opposite direction.

"... don't even think about it..." Kakashi breathed out in a low voice what he had intended to say and had feared would happen.

----------

Sasuke had one chance.  
One moment that would decide whether he'd win or lose.

Getting up, he walked slowly around the stall, his fingers tracing along the wood. His ears listened carefully into the ominous silence. There was nothing. Even the explosions had ceased to nothingness.

Itachi had hidden his chakra from Sasuke and was lying in wait somewhere in the darkness.  
A slight breeze picked up, playing with ripped curtains and fallen leaves. They rustled in the broken streets and collected around crashed houses and debris.

'There!'

A heartbeat before the two shuriken whizzed past him, Sasuke stepped aside. His hand automatically flew to his own holster,  
but to his surprise it was already empty.  
"Dammit..." He mumbled, jumping back to where he had heard the weapons imbedding their sharp edges in a wall. Sasuke pulled them out, swivelled around and threw them back at their original owner.

But Itachi had already changed his location.

Before Sasuke could find him with his senses, a felt the chakra of his brother splitting up in four.  
The Kage Bunshins were circling him and judging by the sounds of holsters snapping open, were armed with kunais and shuriken.

Jaws clenched, Sasuke's hands sped through a set of seals, ending with 'tiger.  
He felt the chakra rushing through his body towards his lungs and he inhaled as deeply as his aching ribs allowed him to.  
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

A ball of fire blazed in front of Sasuke as he exhaled the chakrafied oxygen. At the same time he spun around his own axis,  
listening as the Bunshins exploded from the enormous heat his jutsu was generating.  
After some seconds, the flames died down, leaving behind a scorched circle around the younger Uchiha.

For a long second, all he could feel was the hot air washing over his body. He could smell the burnt skin of his face and the smoke that ascended from the melted asphalt, bubbling angrily all around him.

Suddenly the air pressure seemed to shift the slightest bit, telling Sasuke that his brother was near.  
Not hesitating, he started forming the first seals for the 'Raikiri', concentrating all his chakra into his arm. It would be just enough for one bright ball. One strike was all he had.

A feeling of unease spread out through his stomach as he waited for the chakra pattern of his brother to reappear.  
When it did, surprise registered for the shortest moment on Sasuke's features.

Itachi was right behind him and without thinking, Sasuke turned around, performing the final seal. He felt the chakra speeding through the keirakukei (chakra channels) into his left hand and seeping out of his palm. As it emerged from his skin it formed a flashing ball of energy, sounding like thousands of chirping birds.

In the sun of the early morning, the edge of the kunai in Itachi's hand shone metallically. But Sasuke couldn't see it.  
When he heard the sound of Itachi's moving arm and realized what was about to happen it was already too late.  
Pain exploded like a jolt in his right shoulder, intensifying as the nuke-nin pulled it down Sasuke's side. There he plunged it deeper into the younger man's stomach, causing a grunt of pain from Sasuke.

The darkness around him vanished for a split second, being replaced by a blinding light as the agony became unbearable.  
Everything around him seemed to fade away, sounds being reduced to the dull heartbeat in his ears.

It was then that the loud chirping of the 'Chidori' penetrated the haze clouding his mind and Sasuke knew what he had to do. Ignoring his screaming body and the searing pain in every part of it, Sasuke thrust his left hand forward.

At first there was nothing, but after a heartbeat, that felt like minutes, he felt a slight resistance against his hand.  
Which meant that Sasuke had hit Itachi.  
Clenching his jaws tightly together, he put all his remaining and rapidly fading strength into his arm and pushed. A strange sound, reminding Sasuke of a spoon gliding through jelly, resounded from where he had pierced Itachi's chest. He ignored it and thrust deeper, impaling his brother further on his arm as the 'Chidori' burnt its way through the tissues of Itachi's chest.

Suddenly the resistance disappeared abruptly. Not having anticipated that, Sasuke started, his hand almost popping out into the air. Caught in the motion, he fell slightly forward and his other hand flew up automatically to brace himself from the fall.

"Urgh!" Sasuke felt the bile rising in his throat as he finally registered what had happened...

With the last energy left in his system, he pulled his hand back, nearly gagging as he felt it slide back through the torso of his unmoving brother. It snapped out of his chest with a slurping sound and as soon as he knew his hand was free, Sasuke staggered backwards.

Disorientated he never noticed the small debris around him and stumbled across a larger boulder. He fell ungracefully on his back, where he lay still for a long moment, listening into the silence...

A loud cough errupted from Itachi's throat, sounding wet. Sasuke could hear liquid splattering onto the ground as he coughed again. He was throwing up his own blood.  
When the coughing had stopped, all that was audible was a wheezing sound as Itachi tried to inhale. Tried desperately to take a breath and fill his lungs with oxygen.

But he only brought himself more pain and suffering as his lungs filled with crimson liquid.  
Itachi was drowning in his own damn blood.

Chest heaving irregularly, Sasuke suddenly heard his brother falling down on his knees. In his mind he imagined him kneeling on the dirty ground, blood seeping out of his mouth and nose. The hole in his chest had to be enormous, giving the way free to his insides. A large puddle of crimson liquid was probably growing in diameter underneath him, filling the street slowly.

Another wet cough echoed through the silence and Sasuke scrambled away from where his brother was fighting to stay upright.

To no avail.  
Itachi fell over, landing in a crumpled heap.

Sasuke waited.  
It seemed like his brother had stopped breathing. There was no longer the noise of his desperate attempts to inhale and it sounded like he was lying still.

'Cough.  
"Thank... you... little... brother..."

Silence.

Dust was scratching in his eyes and Sasuke blinked a few times, not having even realized that they were wide open. They were flickering across his surroundings, unseeing.  
His whole body was shaking, when slowly his mind took over again.

'He's not breathing... he's no breathing...', he repeated over and over again.  
An image of his parents, lying dead in the middle of the living room, bleeding and lifeless, sprang to his mind unforbidden.  
Itachi was standing behind them. Red eyes devoid of any emotion... or was there something?

'Hate me... despise me...'

"God... god... ." He had killed him!

It was over... he had avenged his clan... had had his revenge... had saved the village... had saved Sakura and Naruto.  
He had killed Uchiha Itachi.

Sasuke had killed his own brother...

His breath came out in short gasps.  
The pain had long ago crawled into a distant part of his consciousness. There was nothing... Nothing but the feeling of 'his' blood covering his body. Clinging to his arm and hand like dirt, slowly dripping onto the ground and drying on his skin. It felt like his body was absorbing the last memories of Itachi, his last breath echoing in Sasuke's ears. Reverberating in his brain like an echo that would never die.

He felt a tear cascading down his cheek, soon followed by more.  
Closing his eyes he bit his lip, drawing blood. The feel of the slight stinging pain comforted him minimally and he tasted his own blood in a desperate attempt to escape. Escape from the last breath he had taken... from the last words he had whispered... from an image of his dying body, Sasuke had never 'seen'...

A gutural sound escaped his throat. His shaking hands clawed at his cheeks, smearing his features with Itachi's blood.  
He buried his face in his palms and started sobbing.

Again all sensations, all feeling left his body, leaving him alone in the street.

Before he passed out, his mind shutting down completely, a long scream escaped his soul. Terror, grief and disbelief mingling together...

----------

When Naruto heared the bone chilling scream, he stopped dead in the street.  
A strange feeling crawled down his spine as he listened into the silence for other sounds. But there was nothing.

Starting off again into the direction where he had last seen Sasuke, he tried not to imagine what was very likely waiting for him. With a grunt, he shook his head slightly, jumping around a crumpled house wall and across a gaping hole in the ground, where a snake had probably wound its way out into the open.

After another few minutes, Naruto stopped again.  
Right in front of him, a scene of destruction unfolded itself to his shocked eyes.

Where the main street had been just yesterday, a battlefield had taken its place. Large holes indicated Naruto where explosions had been set off and uncountable shuriken and kunais showed him the path, the two fighting brothers had travelled.  
A strange mist hung low over the scene, smelling faintly of burnt asphalt and wood.

When Naruto took a careful step forward, he felt something squishy underneath his boot. Lifting his leg up, he looked down and found a small puddle of blood filling his bootprint again. When his eyes travelled around he found another one some meters away. A broken boulder nearby was sprinkled with red liquid, having been burnt from one of the Uchiha's 'Katon'.

Inhaling a calming breath, Naruto ignored the other stains and concentrated instead on sounds and his surroundings. After all, he didn't know whether Itachi was still lurking around the next corner, ready to engage him in a fight.  
And he had promised Sakura not to leave her alone... and he always kept his promises!

Suddenly a strange heat seemed to crawl up his body and immediately, Naruto recognized it. He had felt it before when he had first encountered Itachi and Kisame with Jiraiya on their quest to find Tsunade.  
Just then, his eyes caught sight of a small part of the street to his left. Black flames were licking their way across the debris and remains of houses.

Naruto would have to find somebody to seal those later. Right now it seemed they weren't threatening to burn down the rest of the city.

Stepping around a stall, Naruto found a circle of partly melted asphalt. His eyes didn't stay long though and continued their journey, when they suddenly came across a motionless body.  
Not intending to run headlong into a trap, the blond man slowly walked up to where the form was lying.

For a fraction of a second, shock and surprise registered on his features as he realized whose body it was.

Right there, Itachi's corpse was lying in an ocean of his own blood.  
A hole the size of a large fist was gaping open on his back and Naruto immediately knew what had caused this fatal wound and had killed Itachi with one blast.

The 'Chidori'...

"Sasuke?" Naruto yelled into the silence.  
But he got no answer.

Stepping carefully around the corpse, his eyes found a small heap of debris right in front of him. Again an uneasy feeling spread out through his body as he slowly walked towards the heap...

A shocked gasp escaped his throat forbiddenly as his gaze found the ashen face of Uchiha Sasuke.  
He immediately dashed to where the other young man was sprawling on the dirty ground, one arm slung across his torso as he gripped tightly onto a long wound at his side.

Blood was seeping out of the injury, spilling onto the already wet ground. Sasuke's face and limbs were caked in dirt and blood. Naruto couldn't tell whether it was Sasuke's own or that of his brother and actually couldn't care less. As he kneeled down beside Sasuke he found his lids tightly closed. The eyes of the raven-haired man moved erratically underneath them, looking like he was having a nightmare.

But he was alive.

"Sasuke? Hey! Sasuke-idiot!" Naruto almost yelled, his hands lightly squeezing the other man's shoulders in an attempt to rouse him from his troubled sleep.

A pained moan errupted from Sasuke's lips as he tried to move away from the source of discomfort.  
"Ya wish, you bastard!" Naruto mumbled, shaking him again, this time a bit rougher.

"Na... ruto"  
"Yeah, idiot! What the hell were you thinking, huh? You could die silently alone here?" The angry voice of the blond, caused Sasuke to pry his eyes open slightly, revealing a thin line of his pinwheeled sharingan. It surprised Naruto that they were still activated even though Sasuke appeared to be very low on chakra, barely being able to move his mouth.

"S-sorry"  
"For what?" The blond man asked harshly. "Didn't you tell me, you were not here to defend your actions! So stop talking shit and pull yourself together!" Naruto was breathing heavily. He wasn't sure why, but seeing his former best friend like this made him angry... even furious! "We ain't got a ton of the best medics here in Konoha for nothing!"

Sasuke chuckled wetly at that, forcing his eyelids apart another few millimeters, hoping to be able to at least focus on Naruto... maybe glimpse a last picture of somebody he loved like his own brother. The image of Itachi was still swimming around his inner eye, slowly bringing him to the verge of losing it. Was his bloodied brother the last thing he would see before he died?

To Naruto it seemed like Sasuke was staring into nothingness. Although his eyes were the sharingans he had come to know, they appeared to be looking across his head, somewhere into the distance. A light haze covered his pupils as they tried in vain to focus on him...

"You're blind..." The words escaped Naruto's lips in a shuddererd breath.  
It wasn't a question. And as Naruto uttered it, his gaze averted from Sasuke's momentarily. He was unable to maintain the eye contact right then.  
'A blind Uchiha...'. The concept was ironic and the thought sounded ridiculously unreal to him even as it sprang to his mind.

"Are... are they ok?" Sasuke suddenly asked in a whisper, blood seeping out of the corners of his mouth and cascading down his throat.

The muscles of his jaws clenched as Naruto carefully lifted Sasuke's body and cradled him in his arms. His fingers were digging hard into the other man's shirt and skin, but they both didn't care.  
"Yeah... Sakura will be mad at us though." Naruto tried to smile.

Despite his efforts it didn't work. For the first time in his life, he couldn't form a fake smile.  
Instead, he felt tears prickling at the back of his eyes.

"She'll kick our asses, heal them and kick 'em again." Naruto continued, slowly getting up from the ground with the heavy body of his friend securely in his arms.

Suddenly he noticed a tear making its way down Sasuke's cheek, dropping down his ear and vanishing in Naruto's jacket.  
"There are... so many things... I wanted to... know." Sasuke said in between gasps. "So much... I have to say..." He continued, gulping hard as the words caught in his throat.

"But now... nothing comes to mind..."

To Naruto, Sasuke sounded almost desperate. And so completely lost. As he watched him close his eyes tightly shut, he fought the urge to pull up his nose. Seeing the great Uchiha Sasuke like that was almost unbearable for Naruto.

"She'll fix you up... just hold on..." Naruto's voice started trembling and he bit his lower lip in frustration. He wouldn't show his weakness. That bastard was going to live and then Naruto would never hear the end of it. That thought was the only thing that kept him going right now.

Sasuke was going to be alright. He had promised Sakura to bring him back. Naruto had given her his promise of a lifetime.  
She would hate him if he broke it.

"Naruto?" Sasuke's voice sounded so tired.  
"I don't want to... I can't die, yet..."

Jumping carefully across the crumbled house walls, ignoring again the puddles of drying blood, Naruto watched his comrade with watery eyes. "Yeah..."

There was a short silence as Naruto increased his speed, dashing across the broken street and getting up onto a nearby house. He landed with a 'thud' on the crushed roof. In his arms, Sasuke's chest rose in an irregular pattern as he heaved a shuddering breath.

"I know, I have.. done a lot... of crap... But..." Sasuke inhaled as deeply as he could, wincing as his lungs refused his orders partially. "... I want to see her again..." He whispered and added slowly: "no... that's not right..."

'I want to feel her again.' He thought silently.

"I want to... explain you... what I have come... to see." Sasuke whispered as more tears spilled down his cheeks. He wasn't ashamed of them anymore. He was human after all. Though he had needed his whole life to realize that.

"Safe your energy... you'll need all ya have to survive Sakura!" Naruto suddenly interrupted him, staring grimly ahead into the distance. He landed on another rooftop and his eyes fell on the silent hut of the 'Ichiraku', the sun of the early morning illuminating the streets below in a hopeful light.

"You'll make it. That's my promise of a lifetime."

A soft, rueful smile spread out across Sasuke's features as he listened to Naruto's words.  
Slowly darkness claimed him again and for a short second, the image of his dying brother vanished behind the picture of Team 7.

A picture of days he had treasured all those years. A memory that had kept him alive...

----------

"Urgh..."

Slowly, Tsunade's eyelids fluttered open and a heavy groan escaped her split lips as she felt a headache threatening to make her temples burst. A hand flew up to her forehead, wincing as she touched a laceration right above her brow.

At first everything around her was indistinct, the shadows of the forest bathing her in semi-darkness. Slowly, she brought her arms underneath her chest. With hands that were numb, she pushed herself upright. She felt a wave of nausea washing over her and with an effort, Tsunade breathed through the sickness.

"Damn..." She muttered under her breath. Her eyes were only half open and her vision was still slighly blurred, but she could already make out fuzzy forms looming around her.  
The bitter taste of iron was lingering on her tongue when she wetted her lips. A jolt of pain went through her skull and down her spine, making even her fingers tingle.

As she touched her cheek, she found it swollen. It hurt like hell and even without any medical knowledge she would have realized that it was broken. It was probably already purple and would need some treatment later.  
'Probably looks like the tail of a monster snake has hit me...', she thought with a chuckle, flinching as it started hurting again.

Blinking away tears of pain, she sat back against a tree and allowed her hand to travel across her chest, down her belly and legs. She wasn't surprised when she found numerous wounds covering her body and a fractured ankle.

But it served her right!  
She had been careless. And she had to be thankful that a broken cheekbone and ankle were the only things she would have to take care of...

Which brought her back to the topic at hand.

The forest around her was silent, meaning that Manda and Gamabunta were gone. Also, she couldn't hear any explosions in the village behind her. Which was hopefully a good sign...

"Jiraiya?" She asked tentatively into the silence, carefully rubbing a hand across her eyes to clear her foggy vision.  
A slight feeling of panic rose inside the Fifth when she got no answer.  
If Manda was gone, she suspected Orochimaru to have at least scrammed. Though she hoped Jiraiya had been able to finish their ex-teammate and favourite bad guy off for real this time!

"Hey, Jiraiya!" She yelled, blinking again.  
Her sight had cleared dramatically and by now she could distinguish individual trees from one another.

Allowing her eyes to roam over her surroundings, they suddenly fell on two forms lying some ten meters away from her.  
Unmoving.

Jaws clenching, Tsunade pulled herself into an upright position, leaning heavily against the tree for support when her knees threatenend to give away underneath her. Her expression was grim when she slowly walked closer to the two bodies, her mind silently praying to the heavens that her worst fears wouldn't come true...

"Tsunade?"

Startled, she stared at the body lying furthest away from her, immediately recognizing Jiraiya's clothes.  
But it hadn't been him who had called her name.  
Right beside her oldest friend, a small, dark orange toad was sitting, one tiny hand on its master's arm. He looked up at her with watery eyes.

Ignoring the grinding of bones in her ankle and the searing pain they caused, she increased her pace. Her eyes were transfixed on the motionless man. She didn't pay attention to the second body she walked past, her mind not registering that the torso was missing its head, which had landed some two meters away from the corpse.

"No..." She gasped when she saw the mossy ground underneath the white-haired man soaked in dark blood. A hand automatically covered her mouth in shock and tears brimmed in her eyes. Soon the first salty drops rolled down her cheeks, leaving a wet trail on her dirty face.

Slowly Tsunade kneeled down beside Jiraiya and touched his cheek carefully. It wandered down to his neck, where trembling fingers tried to find a pulse that wasn't there anymore.

"He's already gone." The small toad said in a raspy voice, looking away when Tsunade's hand gripped Jiraiya's wrist, searching frantically for a sign of life. But again she found nothing but cold skin.

"You idiot."

Frowning, the small toad gazed up at the clouded face of the Fifth, finding her features partially hidden behind hair. It sounded to it, like she was angry, the only sign that she wasn't, being the hot tears that dropped down her chin and onto the eremite's chest.

"You damn fool!" She suddenly exploded. Her hands gripped Jiraiya's shoulders and started shaking the lifeless body in despair.  
"Don'tcha dare and leave me! 'You' weren't supposed to die today!"

Tsunade's hands coiled into tight fists, gripping tightly onto Jiraya's vest. The blood of the man soaked her skin, making her cry even harder.  
"You can't go..." Tsunade sobbed, her chest heaving erratically with each shuddered breath she took. "There are so many people that need you... " Unable to hold herself upright anymore, she broke down, her head falling on Jiraiya's chest.

For a very long moment, the clearing was silent, the only sounds coming from the grieving woman as she cried until she couldn't anymore.  
Hiccuping, she lifted her head slowly, puffy red eyes gazing tiredly at the peaceful face of her comrade.

A rueful smile formed as her lips as a thought formed in her mind.  
There was no way, she would allow that perverted sennin to die before her!

"Ha... I'll show you that I'm not as useless as Orochi has said." With trembling arms, Tsunade pushed herself upright again. Her eyes closed for a second as she tried to calm her breathing back down. A sad smile suddenly spread out on her split lips when her hands started glowing in a bluish light.  
Immediately the gaping wound on Jiraiya's chest started sizzling, the skin regenerating and closing the fatal injury within minutes.

After some time, the color of the Fifth's chakra changed. The now purple energy seeped out of her hands and vanished in her friend's body.  
"This'll only work, if I take care of your blood loss..." She mumbled, seemingly talking to the man below her glowing hands.  
"Don't want ya to kick the bucket afterwards, ne?"

'I know you will hate me, Jiraiya.' Tsunade thought, biting her lip. 'But I can't live on, knowing you died because I couldn't do the job the village has entrusted me with... I couldn't stand the thought'  
Abruptly, her hands stopped glowing.

Her fingers, covered in the man's blood, wandered up towards his still face. She traced the lines of his features lovingly, the tips of her fingers lingering on his mouth for a second as she memorized every single unevenness of his skin.

"You know, you pervert, I was thinking about saying 'yes', the next time you were going to ask me out on a date..." Tsunade whispered, slowly leaning down and softly touching her lips with his. The kiss didn't last long and when she straightened again, new tears welled up in her glassy eyes.

"I knew that kinjutsu would be useful one day..." She mumbled. Looking up into the bright sky, she added in a louder voice: "And you said 'Tensei' (ninjutsu to transfer ones own life into a dead) would ruin my life, Sarutobi!"

"No, it'll save it..."

Inhaling deeply, Tsunade gathered her chakra in her hands and laid them down on Jiriya's chest. It flowed out of her palms and entered the dead shinobi's body instantly.

After mere seconds, she felt her energy leaving her system, filling her with a strange feeling of utter exhaustion. A wave of warmth and peacefulness flooded her body and suddenly her fears and anger weren't important anymore.  
Her eyelids felt heavy and she lost all sense of her surroundings. All she was aware of were her hands and the two heartbeats echoing in her ears.

One was slowly gaining strength, beating in a steady rhythm.  
The other heartbeat was rapidly fading away.

They were mingling together, sounding like the other heart wanted to take over for them both...

--------------------

FINIS?

Sorry this got longer than I had intended, but well... sniff! I couldn't just end it there! T.T

Now that all the fights are over, I thought about writing the conclusion, but that lies in your own capable (of writing reviews) hands...

Oh, and just because I want to show you that I'm actually 'thinking' about what I'm writing: I am aware that Kishimoto Masashi said in recent manga chapters that Chiyo is the only one known to be capable of using 'Tensei ninjutsu'. But I really needed that here! So lets just assume, Tsunade is even cooler than we have thought and that she was working on her own life-transfer-jutsu. o.O'

Oh, and 'lili boom': Sorry, Genma hasn't graced this story with an appearance, yet, but maybe next time... ;)


	7. Chapter 7

Author's notes: 

Hey! Part 7! How cool is that! I finally had the time to finish it and thanks to you and your understanding, I was able to pass my exams!  
I have to thank everybody who has read this story so far and extra kisses, hugs and little miniature Gamabuntas for those among you, who considered it worth their time to write a wonderful review!

This part is mainly a conclusion, so don't expect (too) much blood. But I think its pretty good, even without anybody killing off everybody... I really hope you all like it as much as my sis (who I greet on this way: Hoohoooo!). Comments in form of reviews are welcome and don't forget to read 'Author's notes II' at the end! VERY IMPORTANT!

Maren, I love ya! (she has a guest-appearance here! Guess who she is)  
Kakashi, I wish you were mine! But Kishimoto Masashi-sensei just won't budge!

--------------------

"Sakura?"

Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, Sakura turned onto her side and buried her face deeper within the softness of the blanket that was tightly wrapped around her body. Through closed lids she registered a small light from the world beyond.

"Hey! Sakura!" The female voice insisted once more.  
"Hmm...?" Came the muffled reply as the pink-haired kunoichi brought a hand up to rub the sleep out of her tired eyes.

"You awake?"

Making a face, Sakura sighed exaggeratedly and pushed herself up into a half sitting position. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, waiting for the intruder to give her a good reason.  
And she hoped for Shizune's sake that there was one hell of an emergency!

"What time is it?" Sakura demanded to know, one hand combing through messy hair. A yawn threatened to escape her lips and Sakura tried unsuccessfully to stifle it with her other hand.  
"Five in the morning... you slept 4 hours."

That gained at last a reaction from the other medic.  
Raising an eyebrow, Sakura pried her eyelids apart and stared incredulously at the older woman.  
"That a joke?"

"Nope..." Now it was Shizune's turn to yawn, tears springing to her eyes.  
"This was actually not my idea..." She continued, watching Sakura swing her legs over the edge of the bed and rolling her head around on stiff shoulders. Shizune knew exactly how she was feeling, having had problems lifting her tired arms and keeping open burning eyes herself in the last few days.

"Naruto asked for you. He wouldn't leave me alone, so I"  
"It's alright." Sakura muttered, pre-empting Shizune with a small smile. Stretching out her right arm, she reached for her pouch on a small table and opened it. Her fingers carefully closed around a white envelope and pulled it out. Finally she got up from where she had been lying for the last four hours and walked past the black-haired woman and out into the poorly illuminated hallway.

"Where's he"  
"Last time I saw him, he was waiting in the large ICU-room for you." Shizune replied with a slightly bewildered frown. She didn't ask though what the letter was about.

Sighing again, Sakura nodded absently. An ANBU rushed past the two woman, greeting them fleetingly, before disappearing in a blur behind a corner.  
"How 'bout I take over the rest of your shift? You catch some sleep and give me two extra hours of rest next time. How's that, huh?" Sakura suddenly asked, giving Shizune a cheeky grin.

"But don't come complaining later when Naruto and the gang destroy your last nerve cell!" Shizune warned, handing over the clipboard she had been carrying around with her.

"I'll give you a short briefing then." The tall woman said, increasing her tempo and falling in step beside Sakura. "Nurses have changed shift two hours ago, so I don't think there'll be any probs with them. I had to force another five medical nins to take at least one day off, which means that currently twelve are left. I divided them into groups of three and assigned them five or six rooms."

They rounded a corner and walked past a row of open doors. In each room uncountable beds, occupied by injured men and women, lined the walls. The smell of disinfectant and rotten flesh mingled together with the voices and moans of nurses and wounded, flooding the senses and penetrating every cell of the body.

A pained scream echoed through the confines of the hallway, making Sakura wince.

"The second 'hospital' is under control of sand. They're taking care of another two hundred ninjas and civilians. I heard, they had problems with water, but it seems somebody has taken care of that." Shizune paused only to inhale. "As for the patients, well, we have 50 critical cases. There isn't much hope for them, but we havn't given up yet. Twenty died within the last three hours. ANBU and civilians are bringing about five new patients per hour, most of them in very bad condition."

"What about sound nins?" Sakura suddenly asked, smiling gently at a young genin hopping by. The boy wasn't older than twelve, but he would never reach a rank higher than that. His left leg had been ripped off by one of Orochimaru's snakes and one of his eyes had been blinded by a light bomb.

"You'll have to ask Shikamaru. He's coordinating the forces outside the hospital and works closely together with the squad leader of suna." Shizune continued, forcing back another yawn. "There's something else... Jiraiya disappeared an hour ago. Nobody knows where he's gone and even ANBU can't find them. Maybe you could ask Naruto to..."

"I understand him..." For a short moment sadness flickered through Sakura's eyes, but when she looked up into Shizune's concerned face, the look was replaced by obviously forced cheerfulness. "Not a prob. I'm sure Naruto will look for Jiraiya."

"I guess there's only one thing left, but..." Shizune was pre-empted by Sakura's hand on her shoulder.  
When the black-haired woman looked into Sakura's eyes, she found them staring at the floor, clouded with a mix of fear, self-reproach and desperation.

"I'll see for myself."

With that, Sakura averted her gaze from the ground and gave Shizune a half smile. Her hand slid down the other woman's shoulder and curled momentarily into a tight fist. "Go get some sleep. I'll wake you in eight hours." She said, waving 'bye' as she turned back around and headed to where she knew Naruto would be waiting for her.

----------

"No! You went last time!"

A frown crept up on Sakura's forehead when she rounded the final corner, appearing right behind a small crowd of five nurses. They were gathered in front of the largest ICU-room and with a sigh, Sakura waited for the inevitable to happen...

"The hell! No-one will prevent me from going in there and see"  
"Then lets draw straws! Or play janken!" A third nurse offered, looking as determined as a woman could be.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura pushed through the row of heated women and folded her arms in front of her chest with an annoyed look on her face that silenced the nurses immediately.  
"What's it this time?" She demanded to know, staring squarely at a chubby looking woman to her right.

"Miss Shizune asked for an urine sample of Hatake Kakashi and we were"  
Lifting a hand in front of the baffled nurse, Sakura suppressed the need to chase them out of 'her' hospital. She was quite aware of who exactly was currently lying in the room behind the closed door. Sakura also knew of the dubious name the room had earned from the mostly single nurses, thanks to the ninjas occupying it.

'Six-Pack-Room', a small sheet of white paper read. It was stuck to the door and two hearts at the edges made it immediately clear why the nurses were fighting over 'who' would be the lucky one getting to be 'the' nurse.

'Urine sample...', Sakura thought and shook her head slightly.  
"You..." She pointed at a young nurse walking past the gathering. She had light red hair and her face was sprinkled with freckles. "... come with me. The rest, scatter!" Sakura ordered, ignoring the glares and dark looks she was receiving from the other women in return.

Walking past them, she pushed open the door without bothering to knock and stepped into the ICU-room. She put on a bright smile, ignoring the startled yelp of Kiba. The young man, just having been in the process of getting dressed, dove for his bed, covering his mostly naked form with the white blanket.

"Morning!" She said cheerily, ignoring the flushed face of the Inuzuka.  
Maybe she should have made herself known in the first place. Would have spared Kiba the embarrassment and given him some more time to get clothed.

Sakura was greeted by an ominous silence... it was obvious that the men had been doing something a 'woman' was not allowed to know. Especially her.  
Probably talked about the 'hot chicks' and 'blah'... She wasn't particularly interested in any details!

A slight cough errupted from one of the shinobis and ever so slowly, they started talking again.  
"Hey, Haruno!" One of them called and when Sakura turned towards the owner of the voice, she found Genma, the ever present senbon sticking out of one corner of his mouth, smiling cockily up at her. "Where's the blond nurse from earlier?"

Stopping dead, Sakura swivelled around and walked over to Genma's bed, pulling out the clipboard and studying it with a bit too much interest. Even for her.  
"It seems you need a new cast..." Sakura gestured to the red-haired young woman, not older than herself,  
to come over. "Would you?"

"But, Ma'am... I have never changed a cast before..." She stuttered, looking just as terrified as the man in the bed.  
"He's a jounin. He won't object. He's endured worse, right?" Sakura asked with a sugar coated voice.

Jaws clenched, Genma's eyes stared transfixed at the white cast around his leg.  
'If he has any dignity left', the pink-haired ninja thought with a lopsided grin, 'he will stifle the screams like a man.'

Turning around in a semi-circle, Sakura regarded every man in the room with a stern look, arms akimbo.  
"You 'do' realize that I'm having nothing but trouble with you, don't you? My nurses behave like teeny fan-girls, mother-henning over some film beaus! I swear if you don't play good little patient, I'll personally see to a more needle-based treatment!"

There was a short silence and with much satisfactory, Sakura waited for the general gulping to cease.

"But, my dear Sakura! It isn't our fault, that the wonderful women are spellbound by our spirited minds and youthful bodies! They are mere slaves to their need to find men with..."

He was cut short in his speech, when his bed-neighbour cleared his throat soundly.  
"Yo, Sakura. Would ya gimme a bucket?"

Fire gleaming in his bright eyes, Maito Gai raised his tightly clenched fist. His lips were trembling angrily as he gave Kakashi his best 'you-are-such-a-hip-rival'-look.  
With a small smile, Sakura ignored the disgusted looks on the faces of the other shinobis and headed towards the bed in the far right corner of the large ICU-room.

Hatake Kakashi was lying there, his back slightly propped up on two cushions and his torso covered with the black cloth that also served as mask to hide his face. Underneath the black material, Sakura knew that his chest was still wrapped tightly into thick bandages, a large kunai wound lying beneath.

Even though there had been enough occasions when he would have been unable to dodge her, Sakura had never dared to reveal his face. Although she had to admit, she had been tempted to ignore her inner voices and take a look at what was lying under the damn mask.

With a twinge of pain, Sakura realized, that the day she or any other member of former team 7 would finally see his face, would be the day when either Kakashi or one of them died. Though she'd rather never see it than be forced to say goodbye to him.

Sighing, Sakura banished the dark thoughts into some far corner of her mind. Instead she regarded Kakashi with a somewhat bright smile, taking a closer look at what else had changed of his normal appearance ever since Konoha had been brought back under control.

Instead of his cherished forehead protector, a white bandage covered his left eye. It added to the impression of a mummy sitting happily in his sarcophagus and not for the first time, Sakura approached her sensei with a soft chuckle escaping her lips.

"Lemme see that eye." She said, her hands already busily unwrapping the bandage from around his head.  
A slight blue hue already covered her fingers as she touched the closed lid gingerly.  
"Anything I should know?"

Brows creased in concentration, Sakura examined the eye carefully as she waited for an answer. Though she already knew it just from having allowed her own chakra to enter the organ.  
She had successfully healed the damaged chakra channels already yesterday, but it seemed there was still a little blood inside the vitreous body. She would have to disintegrate it now. So without further delay, she forced a minimal amount of chakra into the sharinganed eye, concentrating hard as she started breaking up the small clusters of blood.

Already she felt her arms sagging away tiredly.  
Her chakra-reserves had only been minimally restored and even the slightest exertion of any kind resulted instantly in great fatigue. But in her mind, there existed not one plausible reason for her to stop treating her patients.

With Tsunade gone and half of the medical nins dead, she was the one driving the hospital on. Even with only one third of its original staff left to operate...

"Sakura"  
Kakashi's soft voice startled her out of her internal revery and with a questioning look she stared down at him.

His right eye had wrinkled up into a smile. Well, at least the only thing resembling a smile on his mostly hidden features.  
"How are you?"

If the question surprised her, Sakura didn't show. There hadn't been much time to think about herself and nobody had actually cared to ask before. Everybody had their own bundle of problems to carry and she wasn't about to complain to anybody about her childish fears or anger or grief or...

"Fine. Wounds still hurt a bit, but nothing some hours of sleep couldn't cure." She retorted almost automatically with an, what she hoped, assuring smile plastered on her lips.

"I wasn't talking 'bout that." The smile vanished from Kakashi's face within an eye's blink and Sakura had to gulp when he stared right into her eyes intensely.  
"You seem to have forgotten that I've been your comrade 'and' friend for many years now and to be frank, you're even worse at faking smiles than Naruto."

Biting onto her lower lip, Sakura averted her gaze and watched instead her hands. She had already healed the last damage to Kakashi's eye, but because of some reason she was reluctant to withdraw her hand, yet.

Maybe Naruto had been right. Maybe Kakashi was able to read minds after all.

Or maybe it was really just his stunningly clear insight into the people he was close to.  
Kakashi had been a companion in more ways than she would admit to herself. He was her sensei, one of her best and most trusted friends... and a loved father-substitute.

"I dunno." She inhaled deeply. Tiredly.

"It's pretty hard. And I'm not talking about the fact that we're low on staff." Sakura's voice lowered slightly when she heard the pained grunt of Genma some meters behind her.

"I haven't given myself time yet to think about Tsunade's... I mean, the Fifth Hokage's death..." She trailed off, her hand flying to her eyes and covering them, ashamed of the moisture slowly gathering in their corners. "It's so... I... "

With a shuddering breath, Sakura looked up again, finding Kakashi's eye watching her closely.  
There was no pity in them and she appreciated his silent support more than any physical contact right now. He was just listening, being the first one since the end of the battle. The first one that didn't ask for 'her' help...

"It seems like Naruto has gone out of my way ever since 'then'. I guess he hates me for not having woken up earlier." Her jaws clenched together as she thought back to the moment when she had woken up on the floor of the Ichiraku. Naruto had been kneeling beside her, kyubi-fied eyes staring angrily down at her. When she had turned her head to her right, she had found the white face of Uchiha Sasuke facing towards her, his cheeks smeared with dried blood.

Pulling up her nose, Sakura was faintly aware of the silence that had suddenly descended upon the room.  
A lone tear rolled down her cheek, but it seemed her hands were too tired to wipe it away.

"And Sasuke... he..."

Before she could continue, a hand appeared on her forearm, squeezing it slightly to gain her attention. Her words would have caught in her constricting throat anyway and so Sakura looked again into the eyes of her former sensei. And for a split second they were so clear, so translucent that Sakura had to gulp down another sob.

She had never seen so many emotions in those eyes.  
Pain, exhaustion, grief.

Understanding.

Sakura had never gotten the chance to see further into his case, but she knew that if there was one person on the surface of this planet who knew what she was feeling right now, than it was Hatake Kakashi. A man who had eyes that seemed to be fighting the world in every waking hour.

"Believe me, Sakura. If there is one thing Naruto is not capable of, then it is hating you."

Suppressing another sob and hiccupping instead, Sakura bit her lip. A shaking smile spread out on her lips as she allowed Kakashi's words to sink in.

He was right.  
There was nothing she could say against that.

Sakura had never seen or met 'anybody' in her life who had suffered as much as Naruto. And even though people had laughed and spit at him, had hurt him emotionally and physically. Even though he had never had anybody to go to when he was young, no warm arms engulfing him in safety, allowing him to cry. Even though he had been alone all his life, Naruto had never hated.

Neither her nor Sasuke nor Kakashi nor the Fourth.

"Sakura." Looking up tiredly into the eye of Kakashi, the emotions again hidden behind a wall of forced cheerfulness, she had to swallow hard.

"Don't make the mistake of walking down this path alone. There're people caring for you. People who love you." The silver-haired shinobi said, his gaze momentarily averting as he stared down at his right hand.  
If he concentrated hard enough he could almost see the white light of the 'chidori' and hear the sound of the thousand birds flying up into the sky, chirping loudly and telling the clouds of their grief.

Suddenly two hands appeared on his shoulders, squeezing them lightly.  
When he looked up again he was surprised to find Sakura leaning over slightly and giving his forehead a feather like kiss.

"Thanks." She whispered under her breath.  
Straightening, Sakura gave him the first genuine smile she had been able to muster in the last days.

Turning around, she headed for the door, nodding approvingly to the red-haired nurse as she gave Genma's slightly messed cast a final (and probably painful) tug.  
When she had finally reached the exit, a thought suddenly occurred to her.

With an evil grin, she turned around slighty and whistled into the silence. In answer the nurse looked up surprised.  
"And I need an urine sample from Hatake Kakashi, bed 22, by noon, ok? Oh, and bandage his head again, please."

Pushing open the door, she didn't have to look in order to know that there was a desperate expression on the poor man's face.

----------

"Ohhhhhh, he's too cute!"

Frowning, Tenten stared at Lee for the longest second, before snickering and looking back down at the sleeping child in her arms.

Two IV-lines ran from her arms to a stand and several monitors were hooked up on her body, telling anybody who cared what her heart and lungs were doing, her brain functions (though she feared Lee and Neji were vitally helping in driving her nuts and therefor killing off what had been left inside her head) and probably even the status of her bladder.

"Pleeeeeeaseee!" Lee whined, pouting when Neji shoved him away some centimeters, feeling his personal space invaded. And personal space ment 'everything' to the Hyuga prodigy.

"Let me take this beautiful child to Gai-sensei! He surely wants to see for himself the testament of the wonderful love that has blossomed between you!" He said, fist raised and if she hadn't known better, Tenten could have sworn that the room had gained some notches of light.

"Later." Was all Neji offered as an answer.

With a heavy exasperated sigh, sounding like somebody had forbidden him to train (which was 'the' worst thing one could do to Lee...), the young slender man turned around, heading for the door.

Just when he reached for the door handle, it flew open. If it hadn't been for his remarkably fast reaction, it would have collided with his nose. Flipping back, he landed two meters away from the now open door, kneeling on the linoleum floor. As he looked up he couldn't prevent his eyebrows from shooting up into a bewildered frown.

"May I come in." Gaara asked.  
He was standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest and an indifferent expression on his slightly pale features. The only thing out of the ordinary about his appearance was the absence of the large gourd.

"Of course, Lord Kazekage." Tenten said with the slightest hint of shock detectable in her voice.

With that, Gaara slowly walked across the small space towards the only bed occupying the small room. He nodded curtly down at Lee, who was still kneeling on the floor.  
When the red-haired man finally reached the bed, an ominous silence spread out through the room, unnerving even Neji.

After a while, Gaara shifted almost imperceptible.  
"Can I hold him?"

For what seemed like minutes, nothing happened. The only sound that could be heard was the rhythmic beeping and bleeping of monitors.  
Surprised, Tenten slowly nodded, lifting the child up towards the waiting hands of Gaara.

With utmost care, the sand-nin slowly drew the still sleeping child up into his gentle embrace, allowing the baby's head to rest softly on his folded arms. A peaceful expression was on its round features, a bubble of saliva appearing at the corner of the small mouth.

"What name has he been given?"

Frowning at each other, Tenten and Neji remained silent.  
Instead of their answer, the sound of Lee getting up from the ground and coming nearer to the scene could be heard. He cleared his throat soundly and anybody having known him longer than a few days could tell only by that, that he was smiling. Probably even grinning like a madman.

"He hasn't got a name, yet. So there's still room for suggestions!"

Again nothing was said to that and even Lee had to admit that it was getting more and more awkward. Maybe he could launch into a speech of how he had rescued Gai-sensei or what had happened when...

"I will think about a fitting name and let you know."

Brows knitted together in perplexity, Neji thought he saw the slightest glimmer of hope and maybe contentment in Gaara's black-rimmed eyes. With a small smile, he marvelled at Naruto's ability to change even those people, and give them back hope, who were caught inside a darkness even greater and more absolute than death.

"I would be honored, Lord Kazekage." He replied, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips.

----------

Walking down the long corridor, Sakura watched the room numbers passing by. Here in this part of the hospital, only few people were lying. Only those considered threats.

When she looked up, she could already see the end of her way.  
A swinging door was leading to a small room behind. Not as much a room than a cell.

A prison cell, turned into a makeshift ICU.

One man was lying inside on a bed. Dozens of machines were monitoring everything from pulse and blood pressure to oxygen saturation and even the status of his chakra flow. Though there wasn't even enough chakra left inside his body to attempt a 'Henge'(transformation).

Five ANBU were stationed inside, each of them watching over every movement and development. Only herself and Shizune were allowed to send them outside.

Right now, Sakura knew a sixth person would be present.

Naruto was probably pacing around the small room, muttering incoherently and cursing every now and then at the lack of response he got from his silent companion.

As she neared her destination, Sakura stealed herself for what was lying ahead.  
Her encounter with her best friend wouldn't be as easy as she would have liked. What she would tell him, Sakura still didn't know.

Suddenly the doors burst open, crashing into the walls. It sounded like they would crumble any second.  
"That damn asshole!" An angry voice echoed through the corridor.

"N-Naruto?" In her ears, Sakura's voice sounded small and insecure. She wished she could try again.  
But it seemed she had already gained the blond man's attention.  
"Sakura!"

Within a second, he was right in front of her and before she could react, Naruto embraced her in a tight hug. Sakura felt his fingers digging into her shoulders, but the small pain the action was causing was comforting her more than any word he was muttering into her neck.

"Naruto..." Dammit, her voice was trembling again. "I'm so sorry"  
With that the tears suddenly started cascading down her cheeks. Sakura couldn't prevent them even if she had wanted to. 'Ninjas are supposed to hide their true feelings under any circumstances'. She should have abandoned that rule a long time ago.

Suddenly, Naruto pulled away. He was frowning and his blue eyes had a moist gleam to them.  
"Don't..." He muttered, a slight angry tone hovering at the edge of his voice. "Don't you ever dare and think there was something you have to be sorry about!"

"But... if I..."

The expression on Naruto's face changed. It was barely perceptible, but to Sakura it seemed like she was reading an open book. It silenced her immediately when she found her own feelings and thoughts mirrored in the normally bright blue orbs.

"I missed you so much, but... I... I always turned around and ran away when I felt you were near..." The sadness and self-reproach in Naruto's voice was almost too much for Sakura to bear. "I couldn't bring myself to face you."

A gentle hand appeared on his arm and when he looked up into Sakura's face he found her eyes bright with tears. She was smiling sadly up at him as she took a small step forward, almost bumping into his chest.  
"There was nothing else you could have done, Naruto." She told him in a whispered voice, one hand flying up to cup his cheek. "If it wasn't for you, Sasuke would probably already be dead."

"Keh, that idiot is even too stupid to kick the bucket, ne"  
Leave it to Naruto to make a comment that could change the mood within an eye's blink.

Despite the tears still pricking at the back of her eyes, Sakura chuckled softly at that. If only she could get herself to tell Naruto how much she loved him. The kind of love that kept friends and families together in deep trust. He was the brother she had never had.

"How's he?" Naruto suddenly asked, wiping the smile out of the kunoichi's face instantly.

"Well... Sasuke has lost a lot of blood, but we're working on that. I was able to heal most of his sever wounds and Shizune luckily helped with the rest, albeit reluctantly." Sakura winced inwardly when she remembered the argument she had had two days ago with the other woman.

"His chakra reserves are practically nonexistent and even if he had still some grain of energy left in his system, there is nothing he can do with his tenketsu (chakra holes) sealed by Hinata. I asked specifically for her to do it, 'cause I feared any other member of the Hyuga clan would kill him 'accidently"  
A lopsided grin appeared on Naruto's lips when he listened to Sakura's words. He could imagine Neji or Hizashi grinning evilly at the prospect of getting their hands on the nuke-nin and last Uchiha...

"About his eyes..." For a moment it seemed Sakura wouldn't be able to continue, but then she looked right into the assuring eyes of her friend and all doubt that Naruto was making her responsible were gone.

"I didn't have and still don't have enough chakra to heal the damage done to them. I don't know what happened and to be honest, I don't know whether I 'want' to. But it seems every single chakra channel and blood vessel has literally exploded in his eyes, probably when he used the 'Mangekyou'. In addition to that the receptor cells of his eyes were damaged beyond my ability to heal them."

"He's a lucky bastard if he'll get outta this mess on his own legs. He's not a genius for nothing, Sakura. He'll learn to live with that handicap... Blind is not dead." Naruto said.

Sakura wasn't sure whether he had said it to assure her or himself.  
Naruto looked like a mess and that was a mild understatement. He had black rims under his eyes, his features were pale and he was still dressed in the same clothes he had worn three days ago. Blood and dirt had already dried into the material and Sakura doubted he'd ever be able to get it clean again.

"What if he doesn't?" The kunoichi suddenly asked, staring across Naruto's shoulder at the closed doors.  
"What if the council of elders decides to execute him?... Naruto, I don't think I could stand the thought that we lost him again. I... I would do anything to save Sasuke!" Sakura was breathing heavily by now. "Even if that would mean going against everything a shinobi of this village stands for..."

Listening to her voice trailing off, Naruto stared at the ground. He himself had practically thought about exactly that every second he had been awake within the last few days.

Sasuke was back. Finally, even if he wasn't what people called 'in one piece.  
They had won. Not only the war against Akatsuki and Oto.

They had won against fate.

Nobody, save for himself, Sakura and Kakashi, had thought it possible that Sasuke would someday return home. And they hadn't been forced to drag him back by his hair or to break his arms and legs.  
No. The Uchiha heir had come back to them on his own accord. And Naruto would be damned if anybody dared to take him away again! And if he had to beat the next Hokage into a pulp!

"Sakura... You said it yourself." A boyish grin spread out on his lips as he brought his fist up, his thumb pointing up at the ceiling. "We'll do it together!"

Sniffing soundly, Sakura closed the gap between them and hugged Naruto to her chest like her life depended on it. She had never been so sure that even the devil in person couldn't prevent them from doing whatever action they would have to take.

Suddenly something poked into her hip and with a start, Sakura remembered what she had put into the trouser pocket after Shizune had woken her up.

"Naruto." Pulling out the envelope, she held it right in front of the blond young man, watching as a bewildered frown creased his forehead. "Shikamaru gave me this letter during the battle. He said it was from Tsunade and that I should give it to you."

With mixed feelings, Naruto slowly took the white folded paper and opened it carefully.

'Yo, midget!'

Concerned, Sakura watched as Naruto started reading the letter that contained what were possibly Tsunade's last words. She couldn't deny that she was more than curious, but at the same time she was afraid of what her sensei had to tell Naruto.

As she watched her friend closely, the pink-haired woman found his facial expression suddenly going slack. But only a heartbeat later, a storm of emotions raged across his features. They changed so fast that she had problems grasping them all.

Surprise. Anger. Fear. Grief.

It wasn't often that he showed so much of what was going on inside his soul and heart that immediately a lump rose in Sakura's throat as she waited for him to finish reading the mysterious letter.

Suddenly, Naruto looked up, staring straight into her bright green eyes.  
His gaze wasn't focused as he seemed to look into the distance.

"Sakura..." His voice sounded strangely small. Like he couldn't decide what emotion to paint it in this time.  
"I have to find Jiraiya..."

Opening her mouth, Sakura was just about to ask what was going on. But before she had a chance to catch his hand, Naruto was already gone in a blur of orange and black.

----------

It felt strange.  
No. 'Strange' was the wrong word.

He felt detached. From his body, his mind, the situation.  
Jiraiya felt like he was floating high up in the sky, watching life go on without him.

His hand wandered across the rough structure of the rock he was sitting on, finding a small pebble on its journey. His fingers closed around the small stone and lifted it up towards his face. He held it close to his nose, scrutinizing it with eyes that reflected the anguish of his soul.

The image of his first student flashed through his vision and one particular moment played in his mind.

"So you made it, huh?" Jiraiya asked the young man with the spiky blond hair standing beside him. He was wearing the robe of a Hokage and a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he stared ahead. The two men were on top of the Hokage tower, surveying the village and the large monument in front of them.

"Yeah. I'm finally Hokage." There was no genuine happiness in his voice, just relief.  
"You look like ya have a long way ahead, brat." The sannin replied with a smirk.

"Just enjoying the view." "Ha! I'd be pretty pissed off, if my ugly face would be chiseled into that giant heap of dirt for the rest of eternity!" The man with the white long hair barked, laughing and patting a fatherly hand onto the youngsters back.

"No. You're wrong." Bending down, he picked up a small stone and handed it over to his companion.  
"That heap of dirt is a proud mountain. A wonderful creation of nature and it consists of uncountable stones. Every little stone is part of the hole massive monument and at the same time every single one is needed to keep it the way it is. Proud and strong."

Snorting, Jiraiya threw the stone away into the distance, hoping it wouldn't hit anybody.

"I guess, Konoha is this mountain and everyone here is a small stone. You and me included, just like all the previous Hokages. And as the Fourth I give the mountain a new face and a new protector. I'm the stone that keeps the mountain together in its core..." His voice trailed off as he turned his head to his mentor.

"If getting sentimental and cheesy is part of this job than I'll happily leave it to you and Sarutobi, that old geezer. You almost sound like you found his book of witty comments." Jiraiya replied with a grin, folding his arms across his chest as he watched the workers slowly forming a face out of the brown stone.

"Oh, just shut up, Ero Sennin..."

Anger flooded his senses as he tossed the stone far away, watching as it fell down into the village below.  
But somehow, there was no satisfaction in this action at all. It just left a deeper hole inside his aching body.

"Dammit..." Jiraiya mumbled, covering his tired features with his hand and sighing heavily into his palm. "I swear, she did that on purpose..."

'Ya know that this is gonna end in hell for us, right?', he remembered Tsunade say, when they had sped through the streets of the village on their way to Orochimaru. Her words made him want to beat the crap out of her for that wise-ass comment. She had known from the start that she would be the only one going down. She had planned it right from the beginning!

Even though she hadn't died because of the genial jutsu she had developed in order to defeat Orochi, but with a forbidden technique to bring back a man from the dead whose life he himself had chosen to finish. 'He' had wanted to die instead of her! It had been his fate to save her and 'not' the other way round!

What a great knight in shining armor he was.  
Couldn't even save the woman he loved more than his own damn life...

"You wanna stand around there all day, brat?" He suddenly asked into the silence, leaning with his elbows on his knees. He stared straight ahead, listening to the almost soundless footsteps of somebody approaching him from behind.

"Thought I'd wait until you noticed me. Didn't want to interrupt your perverted daydreams, old man"  
"You're lucky my arms still hurt. Otherwise I'd be already sitting on your back with your face kissing the dirt."

Snorting, Naruto came to an halt to Jiraiya's right, hand jammed deep in his trouser pockets. His face was devoid of any emotion, the old man realized with a frown.  
"You here for something, or did you just want to bug me? Did your pink heartthrob order you here?"

"Yeah, something like that..."

For a very long moment everything was silent. The only sounds came from the birds and the villagers working busily on repairing stores and houses, filling up holes and searching for dead shinobis.  
It was unnerving for the last remaining sannin.

"Did you know?" Naruto's voice suddenly erupted. It startled a flock of birds out of their hiding place in a small bush nearby. With an angry chirping concert, they flew high up into the sky. The two men watched them for a while until they disappeared in the distance.

Finally, Jiraiya turned around slightly, facing Naruto.  
"About what she decided you to become? Yes." He sighed tiredly, getting up from the stone and looking down into the valley. He could clearly make out the shape of the face of the Fifth Hokage from above the monument, chiseled into the hard stone. He had been sitting on top of the mountain for close to five hours now.

'Maybe it is time to go', he thought bitterly.

"How'd she get that through the council? There's not a chance in hell that they'd just accept that without a fight." Naruto said, pulling out the crumpled letter he had received two hours ago from Sakura. He handed it over to his sensei and closed his eyes, savouring the feel of a warm breeze washing over his features.

"You forgot, that there's no worse person to pick a fight with, than Tsunade." Jiraiya mumbled, absently taking the letter and inhaling deeply before he started to read it out loud.

"'Yo, midget! It is time. You've been getting on my nerves for God knows how long and to be frank I'm tired of all this complaining and crying! Be a man and finally face the consequences of your actions!

I hereby make you my rightful successor, the Sixth Hokage of Fire-country! You'll do fine, I'm sure of that. The world has finally acknowledged you, so show it your face proudly and with a smile! Start thinking about things more important than ramen or high-class missions!

Naruto, there is one last order I would like to entrust you with. Tell Sakura that she has to lead a whole hospital on her own from now on. I have never had so much faith in any other student before her. She's a proud kunoichi of this village now!

Jiraiya! I know you're reading this! Go and suck it up! There're people who need your perverted ass right now! I am honored to have been your companion and friend for all this time. The only thing I regret before leaving this world, is that I never said yes. Please forgive my stubbornness.

And now, Rukodaime. Go and make your father and everyone else, who has given you trust and love, proud!'" Jiraiya finished reading the letter with an unsteady voice.

His hand didn't seem to be able to hold the letter any longer. It fell out of trembling fingers onto the ground and lay still on the ground right in front of his feet.

Suddenly a salty tear dropped down onto the white sheet, the ink dispersing slowly in an irregular pattern.  
Another drop landed on the letter, followed yet by another.

A lump rose in his throat as Naruto watched Jiraiya cry. He had never seen the man he admired such a great deal cry before. And it looked somehow out of place.

Not knowing what else to do, the blond stood back, leaving the other man room to grieve.  
After some minutes, Jiraiya suddenly stopped. With what looked like a great effort, he straightened and turned around. He didn't even bother to conceal his tear stricken face, instead he smiled faintly through hazy eyes.

"I've survived three Hokages already. I hope I won't have to add a fourth name to the list, brat"  
"Don't worry. There's tons fo stuff I have to do. No time to push up the daisies!" Naruto replied with what he hoped was a genuine smile.

"You 'do' realize that there's one hell of a decision waiting for you, right?" Jiraiya asked, waving his hand backwards where he assumed the hospital to be.  
"That's actually the reason why I came..." Naruto didn't get the chance to finish his sentence when the older man lifted his hand and silenced him effectively.

"As the Rokudaime, 'you' decide. If you use your head, you'll come up with the right thing. I know you're smarter that you let on, especially when you're in a sticky situation. Trust your feelings, 'cause sometimes, they'll be the only thing you'll have..."

Looking down at the ground, Naruto listened as Jiraiya slowly started walking away from him.  
He was alone.

"Trust my feelings?... What the hell..." He mumbled to no-one in particular.  
What should he do?

Uchiha Sasuke.  
He had run away on his own accord. Had followed Orochimaru. Had gone down the path of evil just to get his revenge on his brother. He was a nuke-nin and one of the most wanted in the history of Konoha.  
Yes, he had come back and had saved not only him, but probably also a hell of a lot other people. If Akatsuki had gotten their filthy hands on the kyubi... Naruto decided that he didn't want to think about that.

Everybody in the council and many fellow shinobis would do anything to get Sasuke executed, but.  
'I would do anything to save Sasuke!', Sakura's words echoed through Naruto's mind and he knew she meant it. And he had said it himself:'We'll do it together!'

He would have to make a decision.  
One that would either be Sasuke's death or future...

----------

"Sakura!"

Turning around, the pink-haired kunoichi watched as a nurse she knew quite well ran down the corridor towards her. She was holding the ever present clipboard and was breathing heavily from the jog.  
"I have the results!"

"And?" Sakura asked, frowning down at the smaller woman.  
"Hatake Kakashi's urine sample came back negative. No blood or whatsoever in the sample."

"That's good... another thing I don't have to worry about. Thanks, see you!" Sakura said, waving a dismissive hand at the nurse. She was just about to turn around when her eyes caught a glimpse of orange and blond at the end of the corridor.  
"Naruto?"

"Sakura!"

Gnawing at the inside of her cheek, Sakura waited for her friend to catch up to her. He was holding a crumpled sheet of paper in his hands and he was still as dirty as before, maybe even more...

"Naruto! Where have you been? What was that about earlier! I was so concerned!" Sakura was obviously angry as she stepped forward and glared dangerously up into Naruto's bright blue eyes. But when she found them tainted in anxiousness and uncertainty, she fell silent.

"Sakura... There's something I have to tell you..."

--------------------

FINIS?

Author's notes II:

Yeah! Hurray! I made it! Another wonderful (?) part! Watcha thinking about it? Will there be actually a 8 one? Could that even be possible? Depends on what YOU, my wonderful readers, are thinking so far and whether I should really dare it! n.n

I have two very important things to say! Open your eyes and read carefully:

1.: As you may have already found out, Neji's son still has no name (shame on me...). I have some waiting here, but I thought it would be cool if you guys would make some suggestions! Yes! It's a poll! What name could Gaara (aka you pals!) possibly suggest! The only condition is that the name has to have a deeper meaning, one that fits into the grand scheme. So think hard and write it down in your review! ( my mind link doesn't work right now, so telepathy won't be any help here...)

2.: Sasuke, dead or alive?  
I have some ideas for both and I would like to know what 'you' think! Can't promise whether I'll actually take what the majority wants, but I'm open for anything! Try me! I mean it's hard enough for the poor Naruto and what would Sakura do? You see what I mean?

So now I leave you (nearly) alone! Go and write some nice (or not...) reviews, 'cause you make my day!

And now:  
What really happened when Sakura selected somebody to take Kakashi's urine sample:

Sakura sighed exaggeratedly when the red haired young nurse fainted at the prospect of getting down on Kakashi.  
Suddenly the door burst open and a young woman (ME, who else?) jumped inside, an insane look haunting her eyes. Her hands were twitching and saliva was dripping down her mouth as she grinned lopsidedly at Kakashi (who had 'the' most terrified expression on his face ever!).

"I'm the only one allowed to touch you, Kakashiiiiiiii"  
With that she jumped across the room and landed on the copy-ninja's bed and...


	8. Chapter 8

Author's notes: 

Hooray! Here goes part eight... why am I even mentioning it? Anyway! I'm getting slowly but surely closer and closer to the end of this tory... though there is currently a totally new plot developing in my crazy mind... Muahahahahaha!  
Uhm, whatever...

I wanna thank Uni for giving me a week off (damn greedy institution... -.-'), my sis for believing in my future with Kakashi (I already planned the wedding! Oh, boy. How sweet it'll be... and our honeymoon! n.n) and of course YOU!  
Yes, I wanna thank all of you wonderful readers and even more those among you, who decided to review! Love ya!

This chappy is just like the one before pretty fight-less, but with lotsa feelings and UST... I think... had acute PMS when writing this, so bear with me (hears that some readers scream 'too much information' and blushes).

-  
-  
means backflash, eh, I mean flashback (Katrin, your bad English rubs off on me...)

--------------------

Darkness.

That was the first thing, Sasuke got aware of as he regained consciousness. It was nothing he saw, but rather a sensation, like he had fallen into a wet pit with no single ray of light reaching down to the bottom of the abyss. He was cold and empty inside, all feelings having seemingly drained from his body.

After some moments, in which he tried to keep his breathing even and his eyes closed, he gained control of his other senses.

There were people standing around him.  
6, no 7 ninjas, judging by the controlled amounts of chakra engulfing their bodies. Which meant, they weren't trying to conceal their presence from him. Sasuke was meant to know they were there, watching his every move.

Slowly, his body woke up and with consciousness came pain.  
It wasn't the pain that made one pass out in agony. It rather felt like a million needles were stuck in his body, some of them only grazing the surface of his skin, others seemingly deeply imbedded within his flesh.

He felt disorientated, like he was strapped to a merry-go-round, the world spinning past his eyes in a blur...

The sound of two dripping IVs caught his attention. Some monitors, bleeping in the rhythm of his slow heartbeat accompanied them, were playing a strange tune.

Suddenly a hand touched his right shoulder, pressing lightly down on the sensitive skin as delicate fingers probed a still tender wound there. Carefully the digits travelled down his upper and lower arm until they came to rest on his wrist. There, the hand closed slowly but deliberately around it and Sasuke could feel his pulse bouncing off the skin of the fingers back against his own.

It was then that he smelled a familiar scent.  
It reminded him of spring and fresh clear water.

Brows creased slightly in concentration, he tried to move his hand to catch the one still gently wrapped around his wrist. But a fatigue like none he had ever experienced before, engulfed him within a strange chill. There was no energy left inside his body and even the action of moving a brow felt like he was lifting boulders.

His chakra was practically nonexistent and by the feel of it, his chakra holes had been closed expertly. Probably the work of a Hyuga. But he guessed even if they hadn't done it, he would have surely not been able to even attempt forming the first seal for a Henge.

Inhaling, the raven-haired man tried to open his dry, cracked lips to call out a name.

"Sakura"  
Bewildered, Sasuke listened as the voice died away and realized with a start that it hadn't been his. Though somewhere deep inside his mind he knew it wasn't the one of a stranger...

"I know." Sakura replied softly, her hand never leaving the wrist were it was still tightly wrapped around.  
She, too, had noticed the change of Sasuke's state. Though she had rather felt than seen the young man move in a feeble attempt to lift his hand.

His pulse had sped up the slightest bit, any other person inside the room having probably not registered the barely perceptible change of the beeping sound of the heart monitor filling the silence of the room.

Unsure what she was supposed to do now, Sakura looked up, meeting the intense gaze of Rock Lee as he stood some feet away from her. His presence in here hadn't been required, but she couldn't deny the feeling of security and strength she was gaining from his stoic, lean form.

He smiled back at her and gave her a curt nod.

"Would you please leave the room?" Sakura suddenly asked. Her eyes had returned to the still body of Uchiha Sasuke,  
watching as the corner of his mouth flinched into a grimace as something obviously discomforted him. Immediately, the pink-haired kunoichi gathered chakra in the tips of her fingers and allowed the energy to enter the man's body. It poured through his chakra channels, searching for the source of the pain and finally found a slightly bleeding vessel in Sasuke's left lung. She healed it within seconds and watched with a sigh of relief as his features relaxed.

He was almost looking handsome again then...

"As you wish." One of the ANBU said, bowing slightly as he walked past Sakura and Lee, closely followed by his comrades. She knew they would stay outside the closed door, ready to dash inside whenever they thought she was in danger.

"I will stay, Sakura." Lee said with a determination that told the medic nin that not even an army of shinobis could drag him now out and away from her. The concern he held for her well being was touching and she acknowledged his decision with a grateful smile.

"Sa..."

"Shhh... don't talk. You're still very low on chakra." Sakura unwrapped her hand from around Sasuke's wrist and gently started caressing the skin of his open palm. He responded by closing his hand loosely around her fingers, holding them awkwardly in a feeble grasp.

Sakura stopped dead, body going rigid as she waited. Her whole mind was focused on the touch, her consciousness analyzing every twitching muscle in Sasuke's fingers. And suddenly her eyes stared unseeingly at his chest, a flash of memories rushing through her brain.

She remembered the moment when she had woken up in the Ichiraku...

-  
--

Sakura was lying on her back, glassy eyes watching Naruto's kyuubi-fied claws grabbing Sasuke's torn shirt in anger.  
"Sakura! I can't feel his heartbeat! That damn bastard is breaking his promise!" His voice echoed through her mind, bouncing off her skull and sounding hollow.

Sakura stared transfixed at the bloodied chest of the man with the striking black hair. But it wasn't the black she remembered it being... it was the reddish black of crusted blood that matted the strands and covered every inch of exposed skin.

With an effort she pulled her body up into a sorry excuse of a sitting position and registered with a start that Kakashi was propped up against the wall beside her. His arms were slack, palms turned upwards and legs outstretched in a strange unnatural way. She remembered the state he had been in when she had last seen him and was surprised to find his uncovered eye half open, watching her every move.

With what seemed like the movements of a dying woman, she half crawled, half dragged her body across the small space towards her two comrades.

When she looked up, Sakura had problems concealing the shock on her face when she got a first real look on both Sasuke and Naruto. The latter was kneeling opposite her, his chest heaving heavily as the rage literally emitted from his body in spurts of bright red chakra. Something sounding like a snarl left his throat when the limp body in his hands didn't respond to the rough handling.

Her throat constricted almost painfully when she saw tears sliding down the dirty cheeks of her best friend, sizzling into nothingness as they touched the wall of chakra surrounding Naruto's body.

Sasuke on the other hand looked like dead.  
Sakura knew she shouldn't have thought that, but she had rarely come across somebody that looked like he had already been buried and exhumed. It seemed like his soul had left his body and she felt a deep fatigue threatening to overwhelm her body as she realized there was probably nothing she could do to guide it back into the shattered remnants of the former strong and proud body.

Even as she took his wrist to feel for a pulse, she feared there was probably nothing to be detected.

But despite her feeling of despair and the knowledge that it was too late ('Why am I so weak!') she sent the chakra she could find in her body coursing through the channels of his ruptured form. What she found made her sick and Sakura had to fight back the bile that was rising as her stomach started churning inside, revolting. And if her eyes hadn't been so tired, she would have probably started crying.

Through the haze of her fogged mind, she registered a faint heartbeat of the man lying in front of her. As she looked up at Naruto with new hope gleaming in her black-rimmed eyes, the words stuck in her throat as she found him staring back at her with a look, Sakura had never seen before directed at her.

"Help him!" Naruto suddenly yelled at the edge of sanity and Sakura stared at him in horror, not noticing the swearing and grunting silver-haired man behind her.

"Help him, dammit! Sakura!"

Naruto wasn't thinking straight, a small voice in Sakura's mind said, but was ignored as a larger part of her consciousness was busy with self-reproach and a feeling of absolute helplessness.

'Why am I still so damn weak?'

As she directed another small amount of chakra into the lifeless body of her former great love, Sakura heard Naruto rambling on and on, like a mantra that was supposed to break her.

"Please..." Her voice sounded feeble and with surprise, Sakura realized, that silence had suddenly descended upon them. Naruto had stopped chanting in his venomous voice and was staring at her with eyes that held too many emotions for Sakura to take. "I need your help..."

Frowning, Naruto seemed to realize something then and with a sob, that sounded strangely out of place coming from him, he pried his hands away from around Sasuke's shirt and held them hovering above his chest right in front of Sakura.

Knowing what he was offering her, Sakura took Naruto's hands and placed them on the skin covering Sasuke's sternum.

'Next time, we'll do it together', her own words echoed through Sakura's mind. Her lower lip started quivering as she closed her eyes, concentrating on what she had to do.

She shut out everything around her.  
The slight breeze playing with her hair, cooling her crimson skin. The smell of burnt wood and dust. The sound of collapsing buildings, broken water pipes and the last explosions racking the village.

And the voice of Naruto.  
She thought she had heard him whisper 'forgive me', but she wasn't sure.

The only thing she felt where her hands being engulfed within a dark chakra. It felt like nothing she could remember and was so warm that she had to fight the impulse to draw away her hands from the source of discomfort. In the back of her mind, she knew of course that this red chakra was not Naruto's, but that of the demon trapped inside his body. It felt somehow strange that she would use the energy of a monster of destruction to save a life.

Expertly, the medic nin directed the chakra into the motionless body lying underneath the two pairs of hands.

At first she thought she should heal the worst damage before anything else, but it appeared that every injury she came across was in its own way life threatening. She slowly and carefully worked her way through the body, fixing ruptured blood vessels and mending broken bones. She stitched his inner organs back together with chakra strings as delicate as the strings of a spider's web and forced his system to start blood production again.

After what felt like an eternity, Sakura felt the body warming slowly up. There was a faint but steady heartbeat reverberating off the tips of her fingers and she could feel the slightest bit of Sasuke's own chakra flowing through the newly healed channels.

With an effort, the pink-haired woman opened her eyes, lids feeling so heavy that she feared they'd close again against her will. Cold sweat gathered on her brows, trickling down her nose and the side of her face.  
As she tried to focus on the form moving slightly in front of her, she found her surroundings distorted and blurred. The colours were fading together, yellow mixing with orange and black with blue.

Sakura tried to lift her hands up from where they were still lying on top of Naruto's. They were moving up and down with the irregular pattern of Sasuke's rising chest as he took one shuddering breath after the other. But to her surprise she could barely move a finger and with a sudden pang of helplessness, she felt her hands gliding down Sasuke's side.

One came to a halt right on top of his own hand, her fingers resting uncomfortably inside his clammy palm.

Suddenly his fingers closed softly around her digits, like she had triggered some kind of reflex.  
At that her heart constricted painfully inside her chest and she felt tears sliding down her cheeks just when her lids slid close again.

Unable to hold herself upright anymore, she fell forward, every feeling draining from her body even before she had hit the body in front of her...

-  
--

"Sa-kura?"

Blinking rapidly, Sakura averted her eyes from the chest of Uchiha Sasuke, instead gazing into his orbs. Heavy lids revealed a thin line of red and black and Sakura knew without a doubt, that the sharingan were still activated.

For a short second, she wondered whether she would ever be allowed to see the dark onyx of his normal eyes ever again...

"Yes?" She asked in a soft tone of voice, never stopping to gently stroke the skin of his open hand. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to sooth him or herself with the small comforting action.

"C-can you... take of...", Sasuke stuttered, his chest heaving irregularly from the strain. "... the b-blindfold?"

A sharp intake of breath echoed through the small room and with some surprise, Sakura registered that it had come from her own lips. She gulped down hard and bit down onto her lower lip as she tried to get herself back under control.

The battered man lying in front of her looked like a small boy again.  
In her mind his unruly black hair was longer again and his eyes had a look of determination and annoyance in them as he stared at her. But at the same time he looked so alone and lost and Sakura had to fight the urge to embrace him in her gentle arms and sing a lullaby her mother had sung uncountable times to guide her dreams.

"We haven't blindfolded you, Sasuke"  
Sakura hoped her voice sounded stronger than she felt.

The picture of Naruto crouching in a dark corner of a room sprang to her mind. She was kneeling in front of him, caressing his cheek as he buried his head in his arms. 'I'll have to decide...'

A small weak smile played at the edge of Sasuke's mouth and his eyes closed momentarily, looking like he was considering something.  
At last he opened them again as far as his lids allowed to. "Thought so... just checking... ."

An ominous silence descended upon them.  
Sakura could hear her own breathing loudly in the stillness and nearly jumped when the forgotten third person in the room shuffled slightly from foot to foot.

"Wh-where is Naruto?" Sasuke suddenly said, his eyes flickering across the ceiling, unseeing.  
"I don't know... " Sakura replied honestly, her own eyes scanning Sasuke's face in an attempt to read what was going on inside his head. But judging by the dark look that crossed his features, she wasn't sure she wanted to know at all...

"Sakura?"

Frowning, the young woman in question stared directly into his orbs. She was startled to find them returning her gaze and holding it.  
Somewhere deep inside her she knew what was coming next. And she knew she wasn't ready, yet.

There were too many emotions tangled together in a net of confusion inside her mind and heart and she wasn't sure whether there was enough space to add yet another feeling and problem to the heap. There were things she had to sort out first before she could help him with the emotional fallout of his own actions.

"I..."

"I better go... maybe I can find Naruto and send him to you." She interrupted Sasuke mid-sentence, her hand stopping its journey across his palm. She let it slide down the bed and felt it fall against her hip.

Without another word, Sakura turned around, nodding towards Lee and signaling him to follow her without making eye contact. He trailed after her without a word, opening the door and allowing her through. He walked past her as she stayed in the door, her hand flat against the cool steal of the frame.

"I missed you."

She wasn't sure whose voice had uttered the words or whether she had only imagined it at all.

Unable to stay there, she walked out into the poorly illuminated hallway to where Lee was waiting for her. In the corner of her eyes she saw the ANBU disappearing again inside the cell, the door closing with a soft thud behind them.

----------

"How troublesome..."

Sighing, Shikamaru crouched down low at the end of the cul-de-sac, his back propped up against the cold wall of a broken house behind him.  
It was late afternoon already and the setting sun cast long, dark shadows across his hiding place.

'How in hell am I gonna do it?', he asked himself silently. His elbows were resting on his thighs and his hands formed a strange seal in front of his face. Eyes closed, he concentrated on anything but his surroundings.

'With the money I get as chuunin, I can barely hold myself up... and now after a battle there is no chance I'll get anything at all. Not that I want any money from a village that has problems feeding its own citizens, but well...'

His ears picked up the noise of two children running past the small space between the two houses standing to either side of him. One, a boy, was crying, the second child, an older girl, running after him and calling his name with tears in her voice.

True, they had been able to get eighty percent of the civilian population of the village into safety before the largest part of the enemy's army had struck, but twenty percent were still missing or already found dead. Those who had been lucky enough to save their hide, had nothing to return to. The only things most of them had left were the clothes on their bodies and the crying children or friends in their arms.

'Five people... all women... I can see my money flying out the window.'

Again a heavy sigh echoed through the confined space of the dead end. Shikamaru's head suddenly fell back against the wall, pain exploding brightly behind his eyes as he did so.

'Maybe if I stop as strategist and work as teacher... but who needs a teacher when there is no school and no children to teach?' The man with the ponytail mused silently, sweeping a sweaty hand across his aching features.

He shouldn't be sitting here doing nothing. Should stop bathing in self-pity and get to work.  
There were search missions to organize, buildings to rebuild, families to reunite and the largest funeral, he would ever attend to, to get over with.

"What do you want?"

No word was said in reply. But Shikamaru could hear the soft, deliberate footsteps heading towards him. That she hadn't cracked a wise-ass comment seemed totally out of place even in this situation and with a twinge of guilt, Shika realized, that he wanted her to leave him the hell alone. Why did she always come? Why did she think it was necessary to annoy him? Why did she think she had to rescue him?

Slowly, anger was boiling inside his guts, but the man stayed calm to the outer eye, not moving away from the wall, even as he felt the intruder sitting down beside him.

"I've heard." Came the short statement and with a gulp, Shika noted that her voice had a slight tremor to it.

Not even trying to suppress the heavy sigh, he turned slightly around and faced the woman crouching beside him. She was dirty, hands, cheeks and legs stained in dust and sweat. Her beautiful brown hair was as usally tied into four small spiky balls. Her treasured weapon, the large fan, was lying underneath her as she used it to sit on instead of the cold cobblestone street.

"Who's the grapevine?" The black-haired man asked, staring at the hands of his companion lying folded in her lap.  
"The two pals of yours were running around town, looking for you... I asked, they answered." Temari simply stated, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly.

A comfortable silence broke out between them, both of the two shinobis deep in their own thoughts.

At last, the sand-nin looked to her left where Shika was leaning against the wall. His eyes were closed, but the expression on his face was anything but relaxed. With a small sigh, Temari's lips parted slightly.  
"I'm sorry."

Perplexed, Shika's eyes snapped open as he stared at her in disbelief.  
His jaw muscles clenched and unclenched as he swallowed the lump in his dry throat.

And again there was this blinding, white anger that seared inside his head. He wanted to scream, wanted to hide in a dark hole and never come back again. He wanted to beat the crap out of the man who was causing the turmoil of emotion inside his normally controlled mind.

"Sorry?" He asked incredulously, pushing his back off of the wall and standing up in one fluid motion. One hand was balled into a tight fist by his side, the other one pointing an index finger at the un-fazed woman in front of him.  
"What the fuck? I don't need your damn pity! You wanna gimme again some damn explanation why Konoha shinobis are weaklings compared to you and your super-soldiers? Why we tend to break under emotional stress or why I would lose against a child wouldn't it always be for my stupid luck!"

By now, Shikamaru was panting heavily, his eyes flickering across the still unmoving kunoichi in blunt rage.  
"'I' don't need him! I'll take care of everything myself!" He yelled. "Shinobis die every day, why would fate make an exception for him?"

Breathing through his nose, nostrils flaring angrily, the young man straightened visibly. He turned sligtly around and walked up to the nearest wall, resting his open palms against the cool surface. Slowly he allowed his forehead to touch the rough texture of the stone as well, succumbing to the first sobs ragging his body.

For a long moment, the only noise in the small corridor between the two houses, was the sound of Shikamaru crying.

"When my mother died, I was only one." Temari's gentle voice broke the near silence softly. "I can't actually remember anything at all about her. Not her smile, her eyes. What she smelled like. Her last words... I always wondered about that."

Gulping hard, Shika held back the next tears welling up in his eyes and listened to her words, his head still against the wall.

"Strangers always told me 'you still have your father and brothers', but well, I guess I don't have to tell you what 'that' was like." She continued, a harsh chuckle escaping her lips. "In academy, the teachers made us believe that family bonds were the worst weakness of a sand-shinobi... now I know they were wrong."

Temari was by now standing by his side, her fan lying abandoned at the end of the cul-de-sac.  
"Yes, shinobis die!" Her voice had grown louder as she stood facing him with bright, clear eyes. "But dammit, don't accuse me of being a heartless ass! If you want to grief for him than do it the right way and stop hiding yourself in some dark hole like a fucking wimp! There are people out there caring for you! There is a woman waiting in a makeshift camp, who needs you! Right now!"

A new tear rolled down his cheek and dropped onto the dirty ground, vanishing soon into nothingness.

"Damn, your father died! He died saving his family! He died for your mother and her sister! He died for your friends and people he didn't even know! He died protecting his only son! He's a fucking hero!"

"I know!" Shika yelled at the top of his lungs, swivelling around, tired eyes staring down into Temari's.

Suddenly he fell to his knees. All his energy had left his system at once, draining from his body like somebody had pulled a plug. He didn't even have enough power to cry anymore.

"How?" He asked with a feeling of absolute powerlessness. "When my uncle died during the last great war, my father started taking care of his family as well... but me? I... my mother..."

Glassy eyes watched as Temari kneeled down in front of him. His body went rigid as her arms encircled him in a warm,  
comforting hug, her hands pulling him closer against him even as his head laid down on her shoulder. His eyes closed automatically and he inhaled deeply the scent of dirt mingled with the faint smell of flowers.

"Why's it always you saving me?" Shikamaru suddenly asked into her shoulder, not daring to move out of her embrace just yet.

He could feel her smiling into his neck, her warm breath tickling the exposed skin there.  
"Because it seems like I'm the only one capable of pulling your ass out of anything."

Reluctantly, Shikamaru pulled slowly away from Temari and stared at her large, beautiful eyes. They were glinting mischievously and with a brightness, the strategist had rarely seen before.  
Maybe she was right. This woman seemed to be the only one out there able to save him whenever he needed her the most. Physically and mentally. She was 'his' salvation.

"I'll have to take care of some things." He told her, his hand slowly grasping one of her own and squeezing it lightly.  
"But maybe we could have a coffee together tomorrow or so..." Shika's voice trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"Keh. Only if you pay"  
Grinning cheekily with puffy, red eyes, Shika shook his head softly. "Coffee's free in the headquarters"  
"You're some greedy wimp... can't plan a real date on his own."

"Women..."

----------

"Yes?"

Looking up from where he was sitting on a window sill, Naruto jumped down onto the concrete floor and stared expectantly at the slowly opening door.

A wheelchair rolled into the room, a smiling woman pushing it further inside and finally closing the door again behind her as she left the occupant of the vehicle and Naruto alone.  
"You wanted to see me in, eh, private?" Kakashi read the torn sheet of paper out loud, one brow rising into a lopsided frown.

"You still can't move?" Naruto asked cheekily, scratching the back of his head as he grinned. "Getting old isn't doing ya any good, Kakashi-sensei"  
"And growing up, doesn't necessarily mean maturing... at least in your case." He retorted, his one visible eye wrinkling up into a strange resemblance of a grin.

"Whatever." Naruto waved a hand into his direction, something akin a pout on his face. "I actually came to bring you this."

Opening a dirty bag, he pulled out two tattered volumes of the Icha Icha series and handed them over to the slightly bewildered older man. Kakashi took them without a word, flipping through pages he had already memorized throughout the years, noticing some of the sites missing or holes puncturing the whole book back to front.

"Heh... I thought you'd be bored outta your skull with Gai as bed neighbour and well, I had pity with your lazy ass. Went to that perverted bookstore you always seem to be stuck to, but it has been crushed by one of Orochi's snakes." Naruto explained sheepishly. "The I went to your apartment, but the whole building is actually not existing anymore... I searched the debris and found these and some scrolls and clothes... sorry."

Naruto threw a second plastic bag into Kakashi's lap and watched him for a second.  
As the silver-haired shinobi looked at what Naruto had been able to save of what had been left of his past, he crumpled the material of the bag in his fist.

Inside was a short katana. Its white blade was still sheathed in a dark scabbard. The faded picture of a man with the same hair colour flashed through his mind, the small version of himself at the age of five standing by his side.

Sighing in defeat, Kakashi laid the books and the bag on a nearby table. Leaning back in his wheelchair, he regarded Naruto with a long, scrutinizing look.  
"What do you 'really' want, Naruto? Not that I'm not thankful for the distraction and yes, Gai was a real pain in the ass, but I know you long enough and you wouldn't go through such troubles for me, if there wasn't some big huge honkin'  
reason behind it." Kakashi stated bluntly and the blond man could see a smile showing through his black mask.

"You were one of them, right?" Naruto suddenly asked his mentor, knowing that any attempt to delay the matter any further was futile.  
"One of those voting against the council? Well, yes."

"Why? Why would you, or anybody else for that matter, want 'me' to become Hokage?" Kakashi heard Naruto mumble. There was confusion and disbelief in his voice and the question sounded strange in his ears.

"There are ten high-class shinobis needed to overrule the decision of the council of elder. Tsunade knew her death was imminent with Orochimaru knocking at the door of the village and called me in." Kakashi explained slowly in a soft tone of voice and shrugged slightly. "She always wanted you to become her successor and asked me for some loyal people who'd vote for you, beside herself, Jiraiya and myself."

It wasn't the full reason why Kakashi had voted against the council of eldest, but decided that answering why exactly 'he' had wanted Naruto and nobody else as Hokage would take too long and because it would both destroy his reputation as a hard, pseudo-carefree man (he would never admit to Naruto, that he cared about him like a father cared about his son) and would stir up too many hard memories and feelings. And Kakashi was pretty sure, Naruto already knew the answer deep down inside.

"I would have hoped for other circumstances, though"  
Kakashi cut Naruto short with a chuckle. He leaned forwards, arms resting on his thighs and chin lying in an open palm. "Better circumstances? Godaime died defending Konoha and its people. It is an honour taking the place of a true Hokage, a protector of this village."

"Some pretty large shoes to fill, ne?" Naruto muttered under his breath, turning back towards the window and staring out at the crumbled village below.  
"You know that I have to make a decision soon, right?"

Nodding, the silver-haired ninja sighed heavily. "You want my opinion on Sasuke"  
"Yes. You've known him as long as I and Sakura have. It'd mean a great deal to me, sensei."

"You already talked to Sakura then?" "Yeah..." Naruto said, gnawing lightly at the inside of his cheek. "After I learned about my, uhm, promotion, I immediately went to her and told her everything about it." He stared up at the ceiling, recalling what had happened then.

-  
--

"I have to make a decision... about Sasuke..."

Sliding down the smooth surface of the wall, Sakura stared into nothingness. Her eyes were glassy and Naruto could see unshed tears welling up in them. Slowly, she averted her gaze from the opposite wall and looked straight into Naruto's ocean blue orbs. Her eyes could no longer contain the salty drops and allowed them to trail down Sakura's cheeks.

"Sakura, why is it always you who's crying for me?" He asked her with a voice thick with emotions. He didn't get an answer immediately, instead he watched her getting up from the floor and walking up to him. Carefully, the young kunoichi wrapped her arms lovingly around his mid-section, leaning her cheek against his dirty orange jacket.

"Who else than me is supposed to cry for you, Naruto?" She asked in a whisper. "I wonder, why it always has to be you? I know, Hokage has been your dream for so many years and I'm so unbelievably happy for you. Finally everybody will acknowledge you as the wonderful man you are. But..."

Fighting the urge to draw her even closer to his body, Naruto grasped the back of her dress more tightly. His lips and throat were so dry and he feared his voice would merely come out in a rasp if he dared to say something.  
He didn't have to...

"But now it looks like we can't beat the crap out of the next Hokage, right?" He heard her voice near his ear and felt her chuckle slightly into his neck, shivering at the new sensation.  
"Don't make a decision based solely on your or 'my' feelings. You have to think thoroughly about every aspect, even the tiniest one."

Sakura pulled away slightly from where her head had been resting on his shoulder and gazed gently up into his moist eyes.  
"But whatever you will do, or whatever you will be forced to do... I will always be there for you, no matter what. I'll stand by your side and face whatever fate throws at you. That's my promise of a lifetime!"

A sudden feeling of relief and gratitude flooded Naruto's heart and soul and his eyes closed as he considered everything Sakura had just told him. He wasn't alone anymore. And if the whole world would turn its back on him, Naruto would still at least have 'her'.

As Sakura watched him with concern written across her features, she suddenly found the corners of his lips pulling up slightly into a faint smile.  
"You are wrong, Sakura." His eyes opened and his smile became gentle. "I'm pretty sure you could still beat the crap outta the new Hokage after all."

As he watched a dazzling smile appearing on her lips, some tears shining a path down her cheeks, he knew everything would be alright.

-  
--

"Naruto?" Kakashi's voice gently broke through his train of throughts and he watched him with tired eyes.  
"I guess I don't have to tell ya 'who' your father was, right?" The jounin waited just long enough for his former student to nod, trying to ignore the slight flinch of the corner of his mouth at Kakashi's words.

"He was a remarkable man and I respected him a great deal... in some way he was the father I lost when I was too small to comprehend." Kakashi said, sighing and sweeping a bandaged hand across his pale features. "When I look at you, I can still see him here. You carry his legacy, but I think, you've got the potential to become an even greater Hokage than he has been."

Naruto's breath came out in a strangled gasp and his hands clenched into tight fists by his side.

"You have the talent to surpass them 'all'. But you also have the support you'll need to accomplish your aims." Kakashi leaned back heavily in the wheelchair, feeling his muscles strain and protest against the prospect of staying upright for much longer.

"When Tsunade asked for some people to vote for you, she expected five at a most. You do realize that most jounin and several chuunin were there when Kyuubi attacked, ne? It didn't matter. I could have given her dozens of names. People who trust you with their lives and future and 'that', Naruto, is the best position for you to start a new era with.  
Because knowledge is power and even if you don't know every single rule in the grande book of stupid regs, I know, that you have enough smart friends, supporting you, to gain the power you need to protect a country. They're not called geniuses for nothing..."

"What about the rest of the villagers? I wouldn't bet a cup of instant ramen on their support..." Naruto trailed off as he felt the painful memories of their hated, venomous looks staring down at him, piercing his skull and heart.

"Hah." Kakashi chuckled drily at that, shaking his head slightly. "Even 'you' can't make everybody love you! But lemme tell ya, that there was a time when you would have had problems finding somebody to kick you! And now? Who'd have thought that you'd become such a chickenshit? Naruto, you're the number one surprise ninja, not only when it comes to fighting."

"What do you think the others will say when they hear about me having to make the decision. I know for a fact that they're all pretty edgy around me and Sakura... they'll probably expect me to make a decision based on my own feelings, but 'how' am I supposed to shut out that damn voice inside my head that tells me exactly that!" Naruto's voice sounded loud in the small room as it bounced off the hard walls until it died away with a last echoe. His hands were gesturing around wildly, arms risen high above his messy hair.

"And here I am, thinking you've learned 'something' from me and my smart-ass talk..." He sighed exaggeratedly and Naruto could see Kakashi's lips pulling up into a strange lopsided grin.

"Look underneath the underneath, my dear Rokudaime." Kakashi watched with maybe a bit too much satisfaction as a bewildered frown appeared on the blond man's face. "You're not the first Hokage to be confronted with a runaway ninja, especially when it comes to those having followed Orochimaru. I think I can recall your first chuunin exam and a certain person with purple hair, a pretty violent attitude and eyes scary enough to chase a Hyuga off into the forest. And lets just say, she wasn't the first ninja to seek refuge behind the walls of Konohagakure..."

The look on Naruto's face was priceless and Kakashi watched with a amused look as Naruto scrambled off to the door behind the wheelchair. He fell over the table with Kakashi's last belongings and swore as several items clattered to the floor. Hastily, Naruto grabbed them and pushed them into Kakashi's unmoving arms. Clearing his throat he straightened and gave his former sensei a curt nod.

"I'll go and look some underneath the underneath..." Naruto said with a seriousness, Kakashi had rarely seen on his face. "Thanks, sensei!"

With that Naruto was gone. Kakashi watched across his shoulder as the door closed behind the blond man and wondered whether Naruto'd tell somebody that he was still here and that he wanted to get his unresponsive body wheeled back into a warm, comfortable bed.

----------

The last rays of reddish light painted the broken houses and streets below the Hokage tower in an eery glow. Slowly the sun descended behind the monument, casting the five large heads in dark shadows.

Naruto watched from the broken window as some villagers still worked on retrieving belongings from underneath crumpled houses and shatterd stores. Others were carrying corpses of fallen ninjas to some tents in the east of the village. He could see a young woman trailing after one lifeless bundle, her whole frame shaking and Naruto could have sworn he heard her crying.

"Sorry, Sakura. I should have let you get some sleep"  
"Don't be stupid, you idiot! I've been in here at least once a day for the last three years and lets just say Tsunade wasn't always there to participate in my 'studies'..." The kunoichi with the faint pink hair said, her arms stretched out above her head as her hands sought something on an upper shelve.

Most of Tsunade's office was barely recognizable as such anymore. The shattered large desk, the the medic had crushed herself some days ago, was lying in the middle of the room. Scrolls and books lay scattered everywhere and a large dark blue stain on the round carpet showed where a fountain pen had broken into half.

The bookcase at the left wall didn't look much better. It seemed like some sound nins had been able to invade the Hokage tower through the boarded windows and had put up quite some resistance when Konoha had engaged them in a battle. There where still kunais sticking out of walls and books and some large red but already dried puddles showed where they had fallen.

"Why don't we just break that door open, anyway?" Naruto suddenly asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he examined the large wooden door beside him.  
"Because!"

"But I thought you sneaked around here before, when you searched for information about Sasuke and Akatsuki..." His voice trailed off when he found his friend glaring daggers at him. He wisely swallowed the next comment that was burning a hole into his tongue, instead giving Sakura a sheepish smile.

"Show some respect to the dead, Naruto! You can be such a jackass!"

"Sakura?" Naruto suddenly asked, seemingly oblivious to the newest insult. He watched as the person in question turned her head slightly across her shoulder to stare at him. "Now that I'm Hokage, do you think I could order Kakashi to show what lies under that mask!"

The disbelief on Sakura's face should have been all the answer Naruto should have needed, but she decided better to make sure.  
"He'd say 'yes', wait until you were close enough and than say something like 'but I won't do it anyway"  
"Oh... you think so?"

Rolling her eyes at him (just for good measures), she walked up to him and lifted her fist towards his face. With a cheeky grin, she watched him flinch away from her clenched hand until he noticed that she had opened it. A simple key was lying on her open palm and with a snort Naruto took it. He inserted it into the hole of the door and turned it with a metallic creak.

Unfortunately, the door wouldn't open. It was still locked and with a hint of irritation, Naruto rattled at the knob.  
"So much for breaking it open, huh! Did ya really think, the door hiding some of the most valued secrets would just be locked?" Sakura asked annoyed and brought her hands up into the horse seal. As she concentrated her chakra into her hands, they flew through a complicated set of seals.

"Now?" Naruto wanted to know, not entirely convinced that there had been any change at all.

Not waiting for him to open the door himself, Sakura pushed it open and stepped into the room beyond. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness as she fumbled for the light switch on one wall. A sudden flash of brightness made Sakura wince and close her lids against it.

When she opened them again she found herself breathing a sigh of relief. The room was just like she remembered it. Nobody had touched the countless shelves with hundreds of scrolls. A small table was standing in the middle of the room, some open scrolls still lying on top of it. Underneath the table, three bottles of sake were standing. Sakura had once been forced to promise by her honor as kunoichi never to tell Shizune of the secret hiding place. Tsunade's young apprentice had complied without a word.

"Let's see..." Sakura mumbled, walking to the far right corner and getting up on a small ladder.

"Wow!" She heard Naruto gasp in awe at the sheer mass of scrolls and books. "What's written in 'em"  
"Well, they're the most secret scrolls a Hokage as access to. Information to every secret move of every single clan in Konoha and even of some in other countries. Special requests of different daimyos or Kages. We have the few mission reports of S and A class missions that have actually been written down. You do know that usually ANBU mission and debriefings are given verbally, right?"

Naruto nodded absently, aware that Sakura couldn't see him with her back towards him.

"Then there is a diversity of selected medical jutsus, Tsunade has partly developed herself and of course there are the ninja registrations of every ninja in here, complete with profile, full biography, accomplishments and photo"  
"Photo! Don't tell me ya ain't got the same thing on your mind, Sakura!" The excitement in Naruto's voice could easily be detected and for a fraction of a second, the medic considered telling him to wait another few years with being Hokage until he had matured some more.

But well... it wasn't like she herself hadn't thought the same thing when she had first found out about this room.  
"I already peeked into Kakashi-sensei's registration... he's wearing a mask and a look that must have won 'most bored expression of the century'."

Naruto mumbled something incoherently, evoking a small smile from Sakura in return.  
Suddenly her eyes fell on the desired object and with a triumphant 'Ha!', she pulled the white scroll out of its dusty hiding place and jumped down the ladder.

"'Case 2564; Mitarashi Anko' and 'case 172; no name given'." Sakura read out loud, giving Naruto the first scroll and opening the second herself carefully.  
"How'd you know about that one?" Naruto asked incredulously, nodding his chin at the paper in Sakura's hands.

"I overheard a talk Tsunade had some months ago with an ANBU. It was about an experiment connected to Orochimaru where he had cloned something or someone... not sure. I just made out the number of the scroll, but never looked further into it."

Sakura had her eyes already averted from Naruto. She read the first few sentences and felt her blood going cold in her vains.  
"Oh my God..." She whispered, gaining a concerned look of her companion. "It seems like he used the DNA of the First to modify the genom of children... that man I saw back then was the only known survivor!" Her head snapped up and she stared at Naruto with a look of horror and sorrow.

"When they found him, the Third gave the order to keep it a secret in order to protect the child and wrote the entry for ninja academy himself. He's ANBU now..."

"It seems like our mad chuunin instructor could tell us some long story herself..." Naruto said, again engrossed in his own scroll. "The small village she has been born in at the border to the west got destroyed and she became an orphan. Seems like Orochimaru took her along for some years and showed her some pretty violent things in that time..." He continued reading until his eyes went wide in surprise.

"What?" Sakura asked, edging forward some inches without noticing. "Spill it already"  
"During a minor battle with Orochimaru, some jounin brought her along. The Third took care of her and made her special chuunin and later jounin!"

"Kakashi was right... though you said, he hinted that there were more than just two cases similar to them." Sakura said, frowning up at Naruto's own uncertain face. She could tell that he was fighting a inner battle, mirroring her own inner turmoil.

They had what they needed to defend Sasuke from most accusation, but not all! And the question was whether there would be enough support among fellow shinobis to pull his neck out of the already tight sling?

Suddenly a knock at the door to Tsunade's office interrupted the thoughts of the two friends sharply. As one they turned their heads out of the second room they were still standing in and glanced at the closed door nervously.  
Hastily they lay the scrolls back down on the table and walked out of the storage room, closing and locking the door securely behind them.

"Yeah?" Naruto called out into the silence and nearly jumped out of the shattered window, when the door burst open with an angry groan, slamming into the wall and causing a dust cloud to rise.

"Uzumaki Naruto"  
"Thick brows"  
"Lee?"

The three friends stared at each other in turn, Naruto and Sakura looking baffled and Lee grinning stupidly back at them.

Not wasting another second (the introduction had taken way too long in Lee's opinion), the young slender man jumped, rather than walked, into the room. He came to a halt near the place where the two other ninjas were standing and extended his hand eagerly towards Naruto.

The irritated blond took the proffered hand and flinched involuntarily when Lee started shaking it vigorously, the smile in his brightly shining eyes never faltering. Suddenly he pulled away and bowed oddly in front of them, straightened again and almost stood at attention.

"And here I was hoping, I'd be the first one." A light female voice errupted from the door.

When Sakura looked behind Lee's rigid form, she found Yamanaka Ino and Hyuga Hinata standing there. Her friend and rival had her arms akimbo, a cheeky lopsided grin plastered on her lips. Sakura noted that her left cheek was dark purple and one arm was hidden in a thick cast. The second woman looked a bit disheveled, hair messy where a bandage wrapped somewhat awkwardly around her forehead and down to her neck.

"Ino-pig, Hinata! What are you doing here?" Sakura asked with a frown that screamed 'what the hell' chiseled into her enormous forehead (as Ino would probably call it...).

"Naruto! Gai-sensei couldn't keep the news a secret any longer!" Lee suddenly announced, gaining everybody's undivided attention instantly. "He told me about your promotion! I congratulate you in the name of Gai-sensei, Neji and Tenten to becoming our new Hokage!"

An embarrassed smile tugged at the corners of Naruto's mouth as he watched Lee give him the 'nice-guy-pose' with thumbs up and his bright white teeth going 'plink' like somebody had flicked a switch.

"I'm very proud of what you have accomplished through hard work and a will strong enough to beat every genius who has strived to become Hokage just like you!" Listening with a smile, Sakura feared the poor man would break out in tears soon. "I hereby vow, that I will follow you wherever your path will lead and I will do as you order, whatever it may be that you need of my humble being!"

Sweatdropping, Naruto chuckled nervously, obviously at a loss of words.

"I guess what Lee wanted to say in his own queer way is that, Naruto, you may be stupid and so not my type, but if you need us, we'll be there to kick some asses!" Ino said, walking up to the three figures and hugging Naruto a bit awkwardly.

"N-Naruto..." The small, uncertain voice of Hinata broke through the silence feebly. Naruto, ears glowing bright red,  
stepped around Ino and Lee until he was right in front of her. He didn't actually notice her flushed cheeks and glassy eyes as he scratched the back of his head in an uneasy manner.

"I-I wanted to s-say"  
"Thanks, Hinata! See, I told ya, I'd become Hokage one day!" He interrupted her mid-sentence and chuckled warmly. "Now you won't have to worry about your clan any longer... I'll take care of things my way!"

"Thanks..." Hinate mumbled uncertainly, looking anywhere but at Naruto's grinning face.

"Achem..." Everybody turned to look at Ino, who had cleared her throat soundly. "Before you give us your first orders, lemme get something clear first." She declared, staring firt at Sakura and then at Naruto with mischievously glinting eyes.  
"What exactly where the two of you doing alone in here, huh?"

Lee's and Hinata's heads jerked around as they stared at the two bright red friends in shock.  
"Sa-Sakura, don't tell me you and Na..." Lee started to say.

"INO-PIG!"

--------------------

FINIS?

Yay! So, about the polls from the last chapter:

Most of you (or all?) were FOR letting Sasuke live. I really liked the idea where I'd get the chance to kill him off. Lots of emotions, tears and some hard feelings would have followed. But I won't hold a grudge against you for spoiling my plans (Hehehe! Good thing the readers can't read minds, or they'd know that I'm preparing some ultra cool jutsu that'll cause monstrous pimples!...o.O'). So stay tuned for more Sasu? and Saku?...

The name... well... my sis hasn't decided, yet (though I slowly get the feeling that it has been a bad idea allowing her to choose the name for TenNej son). We both loved the names you have suggested so far and some walked right onto the grande list of all lists! So yes, you can still read some more dictionary or wrack your brains for some cool names!

Well... I could now write about 'who' had come to Kakashi's rescue (though I have to admit, that he never actually reached 'his' bed...), but I guess you all know who the lucky person was, ne!  
ME! We're getting married soon, after all! As if I'd let anyone of you near him! He's all mine! MINE, MINE, MINE! Muahahahahaha!...


	9. Chapter 9

Author's notes: 

Wanna thank my sis, Kishimoto Masashi and all of you out there reading and reviewing his story!  
Real and most important 'Author's notes' are at the end! Don't skip 'em!

-  
-- means flashback

--------------------

The sky was grey. Dark, large clouds hanging low above the village and preventing the sun from illuminating the streets. A low rumble rolled through the clouds, closely followed by the bright flash of lightning as it lashed out at the houses below.

It had started raining already yesterday, large puddles of dirty water filling the sidewalks, bilding occasionally small waterfalls where the water cascaded down a gaping hole in the street. The constant downpour of cold water had extinguished the last smaller fires and smoke was rising up from large heaps of debris.

There was nobody outside.  
Most villagers had taken refuge in the large Uchiha district several days ago. This part of the city had miraculously survived the battle, most houses and stores still more or less intact and offering the homeless families shelter and a place to stay until their own houses were rebuilt.

As Sakura looked out of the window of the Hokage tower, she couldn't prevent the heavy sight from escaping her lips.

"Why's it always raining?" She asked herself softly, watching a man running by in the street with an old tattered newspaper as only cover against the relentless downfall.

Allowing her palm to slide down the frame of the window, she slowly turned around and faced the still tightly closed door. Behind it, Hokage the sixth was currently talking to the last remaining sannin in private. What the conversation was about, Sakura didn't know.

What she 'did' know was that they were running late.  
The country would surely not wait for four ninjas to get their asses the hundred or so meter to the area where the event of the day would take place in some minutes.

Snorting, Sakura stared at her impatiently tapping feet and cringed inwardly when she saw the faux pas of her lifetime screaming mockingly at her face. And as she allowed her eyes to travel up her legs and torso, she really had to suppress a shudder from running through her body.

The shoes were standard ninja boots, the trouser was a sickly green and then there was the only shirt she had found in the large heap of clothes. A mesh shirt. Nothing more, nothing less.  
The only piece of clothe on her body, the pink-haired kunoichi was somewhat comfortable with, was a dark blue jacket with an Uchiha fan on its back.

Why she was wearing the odd combination was simple: She had nothing else to wear anymore! Her clothes had fallen victim to the war, just like everything else she had at some point in her life called her possession. But she wasn't about to voice her complaint, because there were people out there having even less than her. She still had her mother, a miracle, she thanked heavens every day for.

The jacket that was covering her modestly (the mesh shirt wasn't really 'covering' anything) had once been hanging in a closet of a member of the clan the symbol on the backside stood for. Now it had been dug out of a large container and served as spare clothes to her. Though, she wasn't the only one in this village running around with such a piece of ancient history.

Smiling faintly, Sakura asked herself silently, whether any old Uchiha fan-girls had fought for the complete outfit.

"Sakura"  
Looking up, the young woman found the one visible eye of her former sensei looking tiredly up at her.

Kakashi was sitting in a wooden chair, his masked face anything but relaxed. It seemed like the seat he had chosen a half hour ago wasn't as comfortable as he had originally hoped and he looked like his back was killing him. Literally.

"Don't worry." He said with false cheerfulness. "'s not like you're the only one with an outfit rivalling our green beasts' jumpsuits." The silver-haired jounin mentioned casually to the overly "sexy" combination of blue short trousers and chuunin vest he was wearing. Sakura was pretty sure, Kakashi would be freezing later in the rain.

So much for appearing in black...

"You're a hundred years too early, if you think I'll even listen to you, brat!" A loud voice errupted from the other room and with a surprised look, Sakura noted, that the door was now wide open. Inside she could make out Jiraiya,  
arms crossed defiantly in front of his chest, and Naruto showing him his opinion in form of a raised middle finger.

"Whatever! I don't give a damn about your thoughts, Ero-sennin!" The blond yelled back, storming past his master and halting in the door when he realized that he was not alone. "Hey! Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, I just... " He looked at his two friends sheepishly and walked over to where Kakashi was sitting un-fazed, one droopy eye watching the scene somewhat amused.

"Oh, lets just get this done and over with." Naruto declared, grabbing a crutch from nearby and handing it Kakashi.  
With an effort, he made it into a standing position in between his two ex-students and, without any of the gracefulness he normally possessed, hobbled across the room to the open door.

Rolling his eyes openly, Naruto watched as Kakashi tried quite unsuccessfully and way too clumsily to walk on his own. The copy-nin himself had refused vehemently to get rolled to the funeral in a wheelchair (something about having been forgotten in that thing once too often), and his two former students had volunteered (Sakura had said 'yes' for the two of them) to help him with his test of youthfulness, as Gai had called it...

Painstakingly, the three shinobis made their way down the gloomy hallway in silence. When they had reached the staircase, Naruto turned around slightly, glancing at Sakura who was standing at Kakashi's left side. The other man's arm was slung across her shoulder as she carefully helped him down the steps to the first floor of the Hokage tower.

"Sakura?" Looking up, the medic frowned at her friend quizzically.  
"Hmm?"

"How do I look like"  
If the question surprised her, Sakura didn't show it. She merely allowed her eyes to travel up and down Naruto's orange-white form and finally settled on his flushed face. She decided then, that he looked cute when he was embarrassed and that she would have to scrutinize him more often from now on...

"You look like an idiot. So nothing new there." She finally replied with a large smile gracing her lips.  
"W-what! But"  
"Naruto, listen. You're probably the only one in this village with some of his original clothes left. It doesn't matter what color they have or what you look like. She wouldn't have minded anyway and this whole 'come-in-your-most-beautiful-black-griefing-outfit-blah' is so overrated! Tsunade had hated formalities and despised funerals. She would have wanted us to appear in clown costumes, just to get a good laugh at our expenses."

"And how she's gonna laugh..." Kakashi mumbled into his mask, shaking his head as he felt the first chilling breeze wrap around his naked shins.

----------

When they arrived, the funeral was already nearing its climax.  
People, mostly ninjas of all ranks, had lined up in front of the large altar on which uncountable pictures of fallen shinobis and civilians were standing. In the middle was the photo of the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade. She was grinning a bit unnerved back at them, the large hat of the Hokage drawn deep into her face.

The men and women were carrying each a white rose, some having tied small gifts to the stems. One after the other, they laid the flowers down in the center of the altar right in front of Tsunade's picture. Soon, the pile of roses had grown enough to hide most of the dead woman's face.

"Let's get in line as well." Naruto heard Kakashi say in a low tone of voice.

Awkwardly, he lifted his arm from around Sakura's shoulder and straightened with a barely audible grunt. Slowly he walked over to the end of the long line and waited for a young genin to walk up to him. The boy was carrying a bunch of roses and handed all three friends one. They nodded curtly before averting their eyes and watching the next person lay down the offering.

A lump formed in Sakura's throat when she realized that the woman now standing in front of Tsunade's picture was Shizune. The black-haired woman was crying openly, tears streaming down her face and Sakura could feel her own eyes slowly filling with the salty liquid as she watched Shizune utter something down at the picture. Pulling up her nose subtly, Sakura strained her ears to catch the exact words, but could merely hear the desperation and grief in Shizune's voice.

Breathing heavily, Naruto glanced at his not-so-secret love sideways. Sakura's face was a mask of schooled neutrality, though he could see her eyes slowly getting glassy as she tried to bite back the tears that were already forming. And with a slight sting in his heart, Naruto realized that she was trying to be the brave, emotionless kunoichi she had always strived to become over the years.

"Naruto"  
Startled, the young man leaned forward slightly, looking across Sakura's shoulder in an attempt to hear her voice better.  
"Will you leave me as well?"

Swallowing hard, he felt his heart constrict painfully inside his chest and his hand clenched tighly around the stem of the rose. He felt the necklace, Tsunade had given him many years ago, press heavily against his sternum, a silent reminder of an old promise he had made.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have..." Sakura suddenly mumbled, looking up again and staring ahead into the distance. "Sakura, I..." A sorrowed frown spread out on his forehead as he watched his feet taking another step towards the altar. "I can't promise you to live forever, or to outlive you. All I can offer is a promise to give everything I have to try. I will do anything in my power to survive. But my life is worth nothing without you and I will protect you and everybody else in this village till the very end..."

Naruto felt a hand wrap softly around his own. When he stared at them, he found Sakura's back still facing towards him. Her arm was drawn back slightly as she kept on looking ahead at Kakashi's back. Slowly, Naruto turned his hand, palm meeting palm and fingers intertwining carefully.

They stayed like that for almost half a hour until it finally was Kakashi's turn to lay down the rose he was holding. He bowed slowly and with considerable effort, suppressing another pained grunt. He whispered a small prayer and walked back to where they had come from.

Sakura felt her breathing picking up slightly when Kakashi had left the place directly in front of Tsunade's picture. A strange pressure was building in her chest and with a start, Sakura realized that her legs refused to move. She felt a new emotion welling up inside her.

Fear.

She knew quite well, that it was unreasonable, even though understandable, and that she should just walk up to the altar and say the text she had devised some hours ago, but her mind was blank. She had forgotten everything.

New tears prickled at the back of her eyes and Sakura could feel the hot gazes of the uncountable shinobis gathered behind her, their bewilderment, understanding and pity, burning her body. Her chest was heaving irregularly, but her lungs felt like there was no oxygen left to use. A feeling of suffocating engulfed her being and her hands started shaking violently.

"Sakura?" Naruto's voice broke through the haze like a thunder and in an instant, she regained control of her body again. "Lets do it together, ok?" He softly whispered the all too familiar words into her ear, tightening his grip around her hand and walking past her. She followed him like in trance.

"Yo, old hag." Naruto said with a false smirk. "Seems like the time for goodbye has come. Hope you're fine wherever you are right now... And don't worry! Gonna take care of everything for ya"  
"And that's supposed to reassure her?" Sakura mumbled, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

He turned his head around slightly, giving Sakura a warm smile of his own. He was just glad that she was still there.  
He knew that no matter how tough the situation, 'his' Sakura would never break.  
Yes, she would cry, she would protest, she would scream and would fall. Sakura would grief and swallow pain, she would beg for help and would comfort. But she would never crumble and break.

Sakura would always be the strong and proud woman he had come to love.

Together they laid down the roses and bowed slightly. The pink-haired medic inhaled deeply, calming down the strange burning in her dry throat. She caught Naruto biting his bottom lip out of the corner of her eyes and caressed the back of his hand soothingly with her thumb.

Walking away from the table-like altar, they came to a halt beside Kakashi, smiling tightly back at the tired looking man. His one arm was slung across the crutch and his knuckles had gone white from his straining grip on the handle. Without a word, Sakura slipped under his other arm and helped him into a more comfortable position. At the same time she allowed some of her chakra to slip into his chakra channels. It coursed through his body as she started numbing the pain in his aching muscles and relaxing some in his back and limbs.

Blinking in surprise, Kakashi stared at her intently.  
"Thanks." He finally whispered, gaining a faint grin in return from the kunoichi. He immediately noticed the distant look on her face as she was obviously deep in thoughts...

--

"I guess we've gone far enough." Tsunade muttered to herself, turning around to face her young companion thoughtfully.

Indeed, the two kunoichis had travelled quite a distance already. They had been jumping through the crowns of the trees for close to four hours now and were deep in the forest of the 7th training area.  
Two days ago, her sensei had given Sakura the order to meet her today at five am in front of the gate with everything she'd need for a three day field trip. Naturally, she hadn't spilled anything specific about the nature of the strange assignment, but Sakura had obeyed nonetheless.

So now, the two women were standing in the middle of one of the most dangerous traning grounds, all kinds of monster animals looming in the shadows of the large trees and waiting patiently for the right moment to strike.

"I better get started with details of this trip, 'cause time is running out..." Sakura heard her teacher say in a somewhat strained voice. "You've been learning under my supervision for almost one and a half years now and I don't have to mention that you're a gifted medic, like no-one I have met so far."

Pride was swelling inside Sakura at the encouraging words of Tsunade. Though she still had some problems grasping the connection to their current situtaion...

"Lets see what you are really capable of then, Sakura." There was a strange undertone in the blond woman's voice,  
and Sakura decided, that Tsunade sounded like she was challenging her.

"Thirty-two minutes ago I injected myself a poison. It's pretty strong and I haven't taught you anything about this one, yet."

With a smirk, she found Sakura's eyes going large at her words. "The poison has spread out through my body, and I don't have to tell ya, that that jumping around wasn't doing me any good. I estimate, that I have approximately 40 minutes left until lung and heart function ceases. I have no antidote with me, nor have we time to reach my office before I die. I recommend you get going, 'cause I don't see how you're gonna explain my death to the council."

With that, Tsunade broke down right in front of the perplexed kunoichi. Sakura barely got the chance to catch her teacher's head before it could have hit the hard ground.  
"You're kidding, right!" She asked incredulously, the desperation clearly audible in her voice when she felt for a pulse at Tsunade's neck. "This has to be a damn joke!"

"Do I look like I'm getting any fun out of this, huh?"

It was then that the spell broke and Sakura's training kicked in.  
Carefully, she laid down Tsunade's head, using her rain poncho to stabilize her neck. Sakura hastily pulled open her backpack and grabbed her medical kit, taking a glinting scalpel with trembling fingers.

Deliberately, she placed the sharp blade at the side of Tsunade's belly and closed her eyes momentarily. Exhaling a controlled lung of oxygen, Sakura sent a small amount of chakra into the skin and deadened the nerves located in that area.

Supressing the twitching in her finger muscles, Sakura made the first cut. She was hyper-aware of anything then. The different layers of skin, fat and muscle tissue she was slicing through and the blood that was instantly gushing out of the open wound, staining her hands crimson.

Not waiting, she leaned over Tsunade's unmoving body and made a second cut on the opposite side. She placed the scalpel in between her lips and pulled the white shirt further up on her teacher's torso until it caught under her breasts.

Sakura took two calming breaths and without further ado, forced her chakra into Tsunade's form.  
Sweat was gathering on top of her brows as she tried to imagine the course, her energy was taking and isoltaed as much of the poison she could without losing the conrtol over her chakra.

"Sakura?"

Startled out of her concentration, the person in question nearly broke the contact to her energy. With an effort she maintained it and watched Tsunade through already exhausted eyes.

"Imagine you were lying here in my place. You were aching, your body wouldn't respond anymore and you were losing all feeling. Somebody was kneeling beside you, working on your body and slicing you open. How'd you feel"  
'What?', Sakura asked herself silently, thinking that there was no time to play a damn game of 'questioning-my-  
stupid-student'!

"Afraid, frightened... alone..." Something clicked inside Sakura's mind and she had to suppress the need to slap her forehead. "I shouldn't just work on the patient like he was a doll. Talk to him, reassure him, take his fear"  
Tsunade, instead of answering verbally, grinned up at her sweating student approvingly.

"Well, uh..." Sakura stuttered, extracting the first large ball of poison and blood. She let his fall into a small bowl and averted her attention again to the task of finding out what exactly it was. She would have to make an antidote soon and needed to know the symptoms the toxin was causing.

"Did I tell you, that I got another letter from Naruto?" She suddenly asked, not waiting or hoping for an answer. Tsunade's eyes were tightly closed and her features had taken on a very sick pale colour. Her hair was matted to her face from sweat and her breathing was slightly labored.

"It's the second one he has sent so far and again he tries to explain what new jutsus he's learned without actually giving away the name or details." Thinking fast, she tried to measure how much time had already passed. 'Have only twenty minutes left', she thought with a jolt of fear and doubt, trying not to let it show on her face.

"Of course, he is pretty easy to read. I wrote back and told him to never mention his not so secret moves ever again..." Her chakra left Tsunade's system, when Sakura couldn't find any poison inside her body. "Who knows what freaks are reading the letters beside me!"

Suddenly, Sakura's ears picked up the noise of something crashing through the underbrush of the nearby bushes.  
Something large and angry.

"Oh, shit!" She said, eyes wide, when a gigantic skorpion dashed out of the forest into the clearing they were currently on.

Without thinking, Sakura swivelled around and brought her fist down hard on the ground, feeling a bone in her hand breaking from the impact. The earthy rock broke open with an ear deafening crack, the skorpion nearly falling completely into the gaping hole.

Jumping up from where she was still crouching, Sakura rushed to where the creature was crawling up towards the top of the long ridge, her hands flying through a combination of familiar seals on the way.  
Almost instantly, a low rumble vibrated through the ground, when suddenly a wave of earth rolled up from her left, trees rising and bending dangerously and smaller animals fleeing heedlessly into all directions.

When the wave reached the skorpion, Sakura watched in amazement as the earth broke open when it crashed against the small canyon Sakura had produced mere seconds ago. Masses of rocks and soil spilled out of the cracked ground, burying the attacking, angry beast underneath tons and tons of earth.

Breathing heavily, Sakura stared at the gigantic heap of earth, watching as small rocks rolled down and gathered at the 'mountain's' base.

Coughing, she turned back around and headed towards the still unmoving Hokage. To her surprise, a small smile was on Tsunade's lips, though her eyes were still closed.  
"Fifteen minutes." She announced in a weak tone of voice, the smile vanishing into nothingness.

Chest still heaving heavily from the straining jutsu, Sakura kneeled down again and rummaged through her medic kit for the ingredients of the antidote.  
"Seems like this is a neuro-toxine, combined with a..."

"Just get it over with..." Tsunade mumbled weakly, "I've got a headache..."

Grinning softly, knowing she was right with her treatment and that the situation would soon be under control, Sakura started mixing the components in a mortar, watching as Tsunade faded in and out of unconsciousness...

--

With a start, Sakura realized that the funeral had come to an end.  
It seemed like everybody had already left, the rain having long ago ceased almost completely. She was standing in a large puddle, feet wet and cold.

Kakashi's form, leaning heavily on her shoulder, shifted slightly, reminding Sakura that she wasn't so alone actually. Naruto was still standing by her side, eyes casted downwards at his own boots as he listened to the sound of somebody approaching from behind.

"Thought they'd never leave." They heard the deep voice of Jiraiya errupting from beside the trio.

He walked past them, stopping right in front of Tsuande's picture.  
Crudely, he pushed the heap of white flowers to one side, clearing a small space for his own offering.

Bringing the bottle of sake to his mouth, he opened it with his teeth. At the same time he placed a small porcelain vase on the altar, put a small flower, he had probably gatherd on his way here, into it and started filling the vessel with the bitter liquid. Soon, the sake started pouring over the rim of the vase, cascading down the smooth surface in small rivulets.

"Cheers." He said in a barely audible voice, lifting the sake bottle to his mouth and taking a long swig. Grimacing as he gulped down hard, he swept his mouth clean with his sleeve.

"See you soon."

----------

"Uchiha Sasuke!" A loud familiar voice boomed from the doorway, gaining Sasuke's attention at once. "You are to come with us."

Breathing slowly, the raven-haired man got up from the soft mattress of his bed and straightened. He had been waiting for this call for almost a week now and had feared he would never get his chance.  
"Still a jerk, ne, Neji!" Sasuke teased the other man with a smirk on his lips, taking a slightly wobbly step towards the door. Without being able to see anything, he had been forced to get accustomed to rely on his other senses only. His sense of smell, hearing and sense of touch had improved dramatically and he had no problems moving around in his cell without bumping against various itmes. He had also trained his sense for the different chakra patterns, people were emitting and knew most of the staff by their energy signature only.

"Look who's talking." A voice echoed from the second person of Sasuke's escort. It was much lighter, but he easily classified it as Kiba's. Of course the low growl of his canine friend and the strange smell of the two companions had contributed to Sasuke's realization.

Not answering, Sasuke lifted his arms, waiting patiently (though a bit unnerved) for the obligatory chakra shackles or whatever they thought would keep him from attempting an escape.  
'Whatever', he thought, sighing inwardly, when he felt two hands grabbing each one of his wrists and dragging him through the door.

Frowning, Sasuke stared open-eyed at where he assumed Neji's face.  
"Hokage gave orders not to cuff you." He replied as if reading Sasuke's mind.

"So she finally decided what to do with me, huh?" There was the slightest hint of anxiety in his voice and he hoped no-one had noticed the slip of emotional control.

Deep inside his mind, Sasuke was terrified. He had rarely felt so insecure and frightened.  
Having been kept in the dark about his future, literally, had given him very little hope as to what exactly the council would finally decide. There were only two real options left anyway: death or life.

Sasuke himself wasn't sure what 'he' would prefer. He merely hoped that if he was to die, not anybody of his old 'buddies' would be forced to execute his punishment.

"Hokage the Fifth died almost one and a half weeks ago during the battle." Neji's strained voice broke through the other man's thoughts and Sasuke's head snapped around to eye him surprised at the revelation. He never saw the small grin appearing on the Hyuga's lips though.

"Tsunade, the great female sannin is dead?" He asked incredulously, averting his blind sharinganned eyes. "And they've already decided on her successor? Who is it?" The sole surviving Uchiha demanded to know.

"Rokudaime 's gonna answer your questions now." Kiba announced, shoving Sasuke not so gently into a room to his left, grinning impishly as the young man staggered ungracefully inside.

"Thanks Kiba, Neji."

A bewildered frown appeard on Sasuke's brows when he heard the soft female voice.  
"Sakura"  
"Come on, lemme help." She said and Sasuke could imagine the smile on her lips. He felt a hand wrap gently around his wrist and soon was being led further into the room.

After some seconds, he felt another chakra pattern materialize.  
One he had been studying for many years.

"Yo, bastard! Take your filthy hands away from Sakura, or I'll chop 'em off"  
"N-Naruto? What the hell..."

A light bulb, the size of the Hokage monument, went off above Sasuke' head and he couldn't prevent his eyes from staring widely at the man in front of him. He imagined him standing there, lopsided, cheeky grin and victory pose.  
"Don't tell me, you..."

He heard a suppressed chuckle from the woman beside him, but couldn't speak then.  
Describing his state as baffled would have been the understatement of the century, Sakura decided with a large grin.

"Uchiha Sasuke, last living member of his clan, bastard, stupid idiot and weakling"  
"Naruto, cut the crap already!" Sakura interrupted her friend mid-sentence, making the blond cringe in fear.

"What I wanted to say, is that your apartment is a total mess. Actually, the whole damn building is mud and your stuff has already been removed hundreds of years ago anyway, or so. Meaning, you've got no place to go to and no clothes to wear." Naruto explained in a cheeky tone of voice, the grin almost audible.

"I arranged a small apartment for ya near the east gate. It's actually in the same block like mine... Sakura's gonna live with me for the time being," He heard her clearing her throat soundly, "'cause she has no place to go to right now. That's all the reason behind this, I swear!"

Sakura's hand squeezed Sasuke's wrist slightly and he could hear her inhaling as she prepared to speak.  
"You still need special treatment and we need the room you've been kept in for the last week or so. That way, I can take care of that and keep an eye on both you and Naruto."

"Hey! That's unfair! I'm Hokage now and don't need you to baby sit me all day long!" Naruto whined in return, pouting when Sakura waved his argument off with a dismissive hand.  
"And that's exactly the reason why you need me! Look at you! I just showed you again three damn times the seal to lock the hidden door!"

Glowering, Naruto stepped around his new desk and stopped right in front of Sasuke. He watched him intently, slightly annoyed when he found the red pinwheel eyes staring back at him blankly. The stoic man knew that Naruto was standing right in front of him, but was unable to focus on his face without being able to 'see' him.

"Maybe you've already figured it out with that believed to be super-genius brain of yours." Naruto inhaled deeply, allowing the feeling of finality to wash over him. "We're not gonna decapitate you or plant explosive tags all over you or whatever you have imagined we'd do to get rid of ya. The catch is, that you'll have to report to either Sakura, myself, Kakashi or Neji once a day. I want to know when you got up, what you had for breakfast and when you went to the toilet. Sakura keeps track on your physical progress, but help you God if I find out you take advantage of that..."

"Na-ru-to." Came the sweet warning of the kunoichi, shutting up Naruto immediately.

"Uhm... oh, right! And no ninja activities for one year. No jutsus, no shuriken, not even a damn toothpick! Nothing related to anything ninja-ish! Sakura actually thinks it'd help you to get accustomed to your blindness. Don't want ya to jump 'into' the tree instead of 'on'!" Naruto couldn't suppress the chuckle at the image of Sasuke sticking to a tree trunk.

Having finished his speech, Naruto watched the motionless form of his friend and comrade carefully.  
Sasuke's face was devoid of any expression. Not even a twitching eye muscle or any other sign that he had comprehended the news. There was no emotion radiating from his body as he kept on staring at Naruto's cheek, unseeing.

The silence that had descended was unsettling and Sakura felt herself squirming as she waited anxiously for any reaction of the black-haired young man beside her.

"Why?"

Startled, the two friends stared at Sasuke in bewilderment.  
Not exactly what Naruto had anticipated, but at least Sasuke hadn't swallowed his tongue.

"And I thought you had conked on us... 'Why' you ask? Phew... excuse me, but I'm not in the mood to tell ya all the complicated details why I don't wanna chop off that stupid head of yours. Sakura and Kakashi refused as well and asking anybody else... Just too troublesome." Was all the answer, Naruto offered.

"Just one more thing, Sasuke-bastard." Naruto's voice lowered dangerously and Sakura sighed heavily at what had to come now.  
"There are a lot of people who are not sure whether I'm doing the right thing here. I can only hope and trust you, though they try to tell me otherwise. Gimme a reason to doubt my decision and I'll happily pick somebody out of the still pretty long list of pals who would gladly volunteer to kick your ass to the moon and back."

Again a heavy silence spread out through Naruto's office and Sakura's eyes nervously flickered back and forth between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Ha, ya wish, dobe."

Gulping hard, Sakura glanced up at Naruto, catching him closing his eyes and sighing soundly in relief.

----------

The place at the foot of the Hokage tower was crowded.  
Hundreds of villagers, shinobis and civilians, had gathered down there, some already staring up at the top of the building in excitement and expectation.

"Did you hear the news?" One man asked in a whisper, leaning across the shoulder of a friend conspiratorially.  
"No."

Right then, Shikamaru walked past the two men, unable to suppress a curious look as he edged closer to catch what they were saying. Eavesdropping wasn't his normal way of gaining information, but he couldn't help himself then.

"A friend of mine, a jounin, told me that the council of elders has picked a high ranking Hyuga"  
"No, no, no! I know for a fact, that the great Jiraiya has agreed to become Hokage this time!"

"You are all wrong"  
Startled, Shika swivelled around to find another man rushing towards the arguing couple, nearly running into the chuunin's back.

'If they only knew...', Shikamaru thought with a sly grin, shaking his head as he heard several other men and women jumping into wild assumptions and comclusions. 'They'll get the shock of their lifetime.'

"Hey, Shika!"

Looking up, the man with the ponytail found a group of young ninjas standing at the edge of the large croud. Chouji was standing slightly off with Ino, waving him over to them. The normally ever present potato crisps bag was missing, instead he was holding Ino's much smaller hand in his.

"What a troublesome day." Shika muttered, coming to a halt right beside his best fiend. He stared up into the sky,  
eyes following a white cloud moving in front of the blue background. Some small birds were flying through the warm air, catching insects or carrying small twigs towards their nests.

It was a beautiful day, the strategist decided, hands jammed deep into his pockets.

"Oh, Neji!" The booming voice of Maito Gai errupted from behind Chouji, gaining everybody's attention at once.  
"What a wonder your youthful loins have produced!" He declared, either ignoring or just not noticing the deep red blush on the white-eyed man's cheeks. "And, oh, how gorgeous he looks in this small costume! A proud successor of the Hyuga clan! Though he might have even looked cuter with that small green romper suit I gave you for him, Tenten!" Gai declared with a bright smile, imagining the infant in the miniature spandex.

Cradling the baby in his arms, he made some strange noises as he allowed the baby to suck happily on his finger.  
"Dubi-duchi-bu-bu-buuu!" He cooed. "Lee! Help me to show this wonder that the green beasts can be as gentle as a lioness! Women love men with a knack for babies!" Gai winked not so subtly to a group of young women and gave his student his famous 'nice-guy-pose'. Soon Lee was mirroring his teacher until the baby stared wide-eyed up at the green duo.

Having heard more than enough, Tenten carefully took her son out of her sensei's arms, rolling her eyes when Gai heaved a heavy disappointed sigh. He slumped back in his wheelchair, pouting and watching longingly as Neji took the squriming bundle from his fiancee's grasp.

--

'KNOCK.'

Looking up, Neji and Tenten waited expectantly as the door to their private infirmary room opened. A man dressed in a black overall stepped inside, the expression on his face a strange mix of embarrassment, boredom and annoyance.

Kankuro walked further into the room, his puppet nowhere to be seen. Instead he was carrying a small letter in his hand. He stared at the sleeping bundle in Tenten's arms and rolled his eyes inwardly. He hated children.  
"Gaara wanted me to deliver this..." He said, obviously unnerved beyond words that 'he' of all people had been forced to do the errand for his baby brother. "Dunno what it is, but have fun."

With that he pressed the letter into Neji's hands, the baffled expression not going unnoticed by the sand-nin.  
But he dismissed it and just turned back around, leaving the room faster than the couple had time to answer.

"Well..." Tenten stuttered, eyeing the white envelope with the seal of the Kazekage suspiciously. "I guess you can open it."

Frowning, Neji carefully undid the lid and pulled out a simple sheet of paper. As he read the only word written right in the middle of the sheet silently, the frown deepened even more...

--

"Neji!" Lee's voice broke into the Hyuga's thoughts with a start. "Pu-leeease! Lemme hold him again!" He asked in the most whiniest tone of voice the other man had 'ever' heard!

"No, Lee. You've held Jiyuu all morning long"  
"But..." Lee started, but was cut short by three ninjas entering the small circle of old friends.  
"Hey, everyone!" Sakura said cheerfully, waving a hand in greeting. She was flanked by two man, both taller than her.

Stopping beside team Gai, the pink haired kunoichi waited patiently for the overly baffled expressions and initial shock to subside enough for the rest of the gang to breathe again.  
Naturally, Lee was the first to recover. If he had been shocked at all to begin with...

"Sakura! Why aren't you with Naruto!" He exclaimed bewilderd, stepping closer and invading 'somebody's' personal space.  
"Yo, Lee. Would you mind." The raven-haired man standing to Sakura's right grunted disapprovingly.

"Forgive me, Sasuke. I had the impression you were aware of me being here." The young man with the orange leg-warmers said honestly, bowing slightly and stepping back some feet to get some air between himself and the Uchiha heir.

"Never mind..." Sasuke mumbled. He was very uncomfortable with everyone standing around him and could feel them gaping at his unexpected appearance like some fish out of the water. He swore, he would have to tell Sakura next time to leave him the hell alone, when he 'said' he wanted to be left the hell alone, dammit!

Sensing Sasuke's discomfort, Sakura squeezed his hand slightly and smiled up at Lee.  
"Naruto wanted to be alone. I'm down here for moral support and to lend some whiny men a hand." She gestured with her chin first to Sasuke and then to the second man standing by her left side.

"She insisted..." Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly, slowly walking around Sakura and coming to a halt right in front of Gai. The other man was sitting in his wheelchair, fuming when he found himself in a sticky situation he had been trying to avoid for days...

"Seems like I win, Gai, huh?" The silver-haired jounin asked in a sugar coated voice, crouching down and eyeing Gai's physical state in obvious amusement.

"What!" Lee suddenly cried, his eyes even larger than before as he ragarded first Gai and then Kakashi with confusion and disbelief written squarely across his features. "Why would Gai-sensei 'lose'!"

Lips quivering, Gai thought back to the day when he had made 'the' bet.

It had been a tie. Kakashi 'and' Gai having had 64 victories and the green beast decided that he would be damned if his eternal rival would take the lead in their strange, infamous quarrel! So he had come up with a plan, he had been 100 percent sure, Kakashi could NOT win!

"Kakashi," he had said in his usual my-youthful-being-will-conquer-your-genius tone of voice, "I bet, you will not be able to beat me in a marathon around Konoha on your own feet by the end of the week!" Gai had proposed, so sure of his imminent, magnificent victory that he hadn't noticed the sweatdropping Kakashi wriggling his toes underneath the sheets of his bed.

It had seemed a good idea that day.  
Kakashi still unable to move an inch and himself already running around the infirmary complex, nose deep in his hard taining sessions. He had merely stopped when Sakura or Shizune had dragged him back into his bed by his ears.

Three days ago, though, some higher being had outed itself as great Kakashi fan.

Gai had been running through the corridors of the hospital, trying to achieve a new best time, when suddenly a door had opened that (Gai could have sworn by his youth!) hadn't been there before! It had smashed his nose, setting him off-balance. He had lost his footing, had toppled across a bucket and had fallen down the staircase of the three storeys of the hospital building, having landed with a very painful thud at the exit door.

Sakura had stitched his wounds up, had stopped the aching and tingling nerves from protesting, but unfortunately had refused to heal the fractures in 'both' of his legs. She hadn't undertsood the necessity of his spirited body to be able to walk and train again. She had actually felt like it would be a good thing, if Gai stayed in the wheelchair until both legs were healed (on their own) again.

So now he was sitting, beet red, in his wheelchair, legs propped up and pointing straight away from his body. 'V'-shape style. He had stopped apologizing for kicking people accidently already two days ago. And to round off the picture of his misfortune, he just knew he looked kinda strange (Tenten had called it actually 'even' stranger)  
with the legs of his spandex cut off right above the end of the two casts... middle thigh.

"65 to 64, I think... and if I'm not wrong, it's my turn to pick the next contest, ne?" Kakashi asked, one visibly eye wrinkling up into a bright smile as he patted the cast on Gai's left leg happily.

"Nothing has changed." Kakashi heard Sasuke whisper. When he looked up, he foundnd the young man standing motionless beside his female companion, staring blindly at the ground.

A harsh chuckle escaped Sakura's throat. She shook her head amusedly, grinning as she met her sensei's gaze.  
"It is time, you open your eyes, Sasuke... Maybe 'you' have changed so much, that you can't 'see' the differences around you." She said, smirking when Sasuke grunted his disapproval at the pun.

"Yo, pals." Shika suddenly announced, nodding his chin up to the top of the Hokage tower. "Show time."

----------

"You can do this... Naruto, just fucking do it..."

Mumbling encouragements to himself, Naruto slowly (very, very slowly) made his way across the small space of the rooftop to the railing marking its edge.  
He was wearing the traditional robe marking him as Hokage of Fire country, hat and all complete with two special items he had refused to leave behind.

One was the necklace he had won of Tsunade and the second was a leather bracelet wrapped several times around his right wrist. Sakura had given him the present some days ago. She had insisted quite vehemently when he had mused out loud that he would so not look manly, but had given in when she had said, that it would give him strength and help him through anything.

Naruto thought she was right.  
It had come from her, which could only mean luck!

Carefully he stepped closer to the end of the path, his eyes already catching sight of the outer line of the croud.  
And much to his agitation, they had spied him, too.

A sudden murmer rippled through the rows, followed by stunned, unnatural silence.

When Naruto finally reached the railing, not even the birds were singing anymore.  
An ominous, threatening stillness had descended upon the gathered people and Naruto could feel the first beads of cold sweat breaking out on his brows. He could see the perplexed and even fearful looks some of the villagers were throwing up at him.

Mothers were pressing their children tightly against their legs and men were moving protectively in front of their families. An old woman even started crying, hiding her face in her wrinkled hands.

Naruto had anticipated that.  
But he hadn't been ready for it at all.

A lump rose in his thorat and his lips went dry. When he tried to wet them with his tongue, the blond found his mouth unable to open. He could feel his hands trembling slightly and the muscles in his legs strained painfully.

He wanted to run away.

He had felt like this many times before.  
When parents had pulled their children away as he had tried to play with them.  
When they had kicked him out of their shops in disgust as he had wanted to buy some food.

When they had called him demon after he had graduated from ninja academy.

Gulping hard, he drew the hat deeper into his face, casting his features in dark shadows. He felt ashamed of the angry tears that were threatening to run down his cheeks.

'Even 'you' can't make everybody love you!', Kakashi had said and had been right in a most gruesome way.  
A vast majority of the civilian population would surely need some time to get accustomed to the prospect of having the 'nine-tailed demon fox' as their supposed to be protector, and he was farely sure, most of them would never acknowledge him for 'who' and not 'what' he actually was.

"But I'm not alone..." Naruto mumbled, inhaling deeply and straightening visibly. He clenched his hands into tight fists, chin lifted high as he tried to look braver than he felt.

"NARUTOOOOOOO!"

Startled, his eyes flickered across the perplexed croud.  
All heads had turned as one to a small group of shinobis standing slightly off to the left. A woman with pink hair was standing in the middle, arms raised high above her head as she waved madly up at him.

"NARUTOOOO! LONG LIVE OUR HOKAGE!" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs, the smile on her face threatening to split her face in two and tears streaming down her cheeks as she jumped around on the spot, all the time waving her arms.

Naruto watched dumbstruck, feeling tears of joy and something else, welling up in his already watery eyes. As he waited for the first salty drops to roll down his cheeks, he suddenly realized why he was standing up here, wearing a costume that (as Sakura had stated some hours back) so didn't suit him.

He had become Hokage to continue the will of the First and all his successors.  
Naruto had to protect those dear to him. If they loved him the way he was or not.

Naruto inherited the will of the fire.

"GO, DOBE!"

Wide eyes watched as Sasuke, hands jammed deep in his trouser pockets, grinned slightly up at him. His eyes were open, revealing the pinwheeled sharingan. Sakura, still beside him, elbowed him angrily in his side, eliciting a warm chuckle from the other ninjas gathered around them.

Shikamaru stepped forward, raising his arms high above his head.  
And started clapping.

Kakashi, Chouji and Ino followed their lead, applauding loudly. It sounded strangely feeble above the low murmur that was still rolling through the rest of the croud. But that didn't matter then to Naruto.

Everybody else of his friends had started clapping enthusiastically as well, Lee and Kiba whistling loudly and even Shino and Neji had a small somewhat proud smile plastered on their lips as they showed Naruto their respect. The young Hyuga bowed slightly and his fiancee, Tenten, waved the tiny hand of their son up at Naruto.

Unable to ignore the tight feeling in his chest any longer, Naruto lifted his arms and started waving back, one hand grabbing the rim of the hat and pulling it off of his head. His blond hair was messy and looked like he had just awoken.

With energy surging through his body, Naruto jumped up onto the railing, nearly falling over as he continued to gesture around wildly. He was screaming 'Thank you' at the top of his lungs and allowed a feeling of absolute happiness and contentment to wash over him.

His ears caught the sound of other people starting to clap their hands to the strange rhythm of his friends, soon followed by many others. Some of them he recognized as fellow shinobis, Asuma and Kurenai both trying to be the loudest among them. Others he knew from the streets and shops. There was the old man of the ramen shop and his daughter, or that old lady from next door.

"Narutoo!" Again Sakura's voice overpowered all the clapping and whistling, catching Naruto's undivided attention.

Spreading his fingers wide, he allowed the slight warm breeze to blow around his digits as he stared smiling up at the blue sky. After some seconds, his gaze averted from the horizon and he allowed it to wander down to the Hokage monument. Five faces were staring blankly back at him and his eyes fell on the head of the Forth.

'See?' Naruto thought, 'I made it'  
Naruto grinned lopsidedly back at the features chiseled into the massive sone of the mountain and gave the sky a thumbs-up.

He had finally reached his goal.  
He was Hokage, had friends so close to him, that he could call them 'his' family and had kept all of his promises.  
To Sakura, Sasuke, Gaara, Hinata, the world.

'So now...', Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime, vessel to the kyuubi and ramen-addicted ninja thought smugly, grinning wildly up at the vast, bright blue sky above him, "What am I gonna reach now!'

--------------------

FINIS!  
(note the exclamation mark at the end...)

So this was it? I feel like crying... SNIFF! T.T I had so much fun writing this! I like the end very much and hope I'm not standing alone with that! This might be the final chapter, but that doesn't mean I don't wanna know your opinion! So before you forget me completely (Hey! Stay awake for another two secs!), write some lines and lemme know what you're thinking!

I wanna thank at the end of this 9th and final chapter everybody who has read this story and express my joy over every single review I have gotten! I loved reading your comments (and hopefully will in the near future).

Pairings intended in this fiction were Shika/Tem, Kerenai/Asuma, Jir/Tsu, Ino/Chouji (I like them P) and Ten/Neji. As for the Sakura couple...I have consciously left the question open, whether Sak/Sas or Sak/Nar. Haven't decided yet which one I prefer the most! Hope you didn't mind and hate me! I love 'em both and guess, until I make up my mind otherwise, Masashi should play with them for as long as he wants! ;)

Oh! You may have toppled across the name of Tenten and Neji's son, ne? If not, scroll back or read the next lines carefully:

'Jiyuu' it is!  
Means 'freedom' and I took it mainly because I really liked how it sounded. Hyuga Jiyuu... love it n.n Here are the other names I had on my list (they're in no particular order, just random! There are also those names some of you have suggested! Don't be mad if we (sis and I) didn't chose them, we had a really hard time deciding!

Arashi (storm), Tori (bird), Tsubasa (wings), Hitomi (pupil), Washi (eagle), Isan (inheritance), Shiryoku (eyesight) Michi (way), Takuya (didn't find the right meaning, sorry), Koji (orphan), the kanji for seven ("It's a lucky number, usually pronounced 'Nana'. However, there's an alternate pronunciation: 'Shichi', shi for death and chi for power... ninja-ish?" end of quote) and Tokeru (to loosen, too fuse... not sure that are the right meanings though...).

I thank you all again and again! Hugs and kisses for you all!

Another matter would be a new idea I'm currently developing. It'll be another huge action/advenure fic with lotsa feelings and fights. Maybe you are interested... o.O'  
So better stay tuned! I'm not willing to let the Naruto universe rest any time soon! Muahahahahahahaha!

Now have fun and you are free (my spell forces you subtly, though) to review!  
Your Sarah aka grilledjellyfish


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